Mastercard, Visa embrace agentic AI

Visa and Mastercard acceptance sticker
Bloomberg
  • Key insight: Visa and Mastercard are expanding agentic commerce services. 
  • What's at stake: Gaining share of the emerging agentic commerce market. 
  • Forward look: More payment companies are adopting the technology as demand for better user experience increases.

Finding new sources of revenue beyond payment acceptance has become a large part of Mastercard's strategy in recent years as fintechs, regulations and economic factors have placed pressure on transaction fees.

To that end, the card network this week released its Merchant Cloud, a payments platform that combines authentication, checkout and other functions. The cloud also supports transaction routing, access to data analysis and multi-channel merchant services.

Mastercard's Merchant Cloud will also enable merchants to conduct agentic payments, integrating with Mastercard Agent Pay. Other cloud-enabled services include fraud monitoring tools to spot fake merchants, providing risk scores to merchant acquirers and payment companies. Many of these services exist, but having them integrated into a payment platform is designed to centralize these functions and make them easier to access. Mastercard's network includes more than 240 merchant acquirers and three dozen payment types. 

"Commerce is truly simplified through a unified, scalable, secure and open infrastructure — one that not only supports the needs of merchant partners today with data, services and insights, but is also designed to anticipate the future of digital and agent-driven commerce," Gaurang Shah, executive vice president, global acceptance and merchant solutions at Mastercard, said in a release. 

Mastercard and Visa have both recently introduced agentic payment services, hoping to benefit from the trend toward using new forms of AI to make shopping and payments easier. 

Mastercard has partnered with Microsoft, Google and PayPal's Braintree to add agentic AI to different payment functions. —John Adams  

Visa building
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Visa releases its protocol for agentic commerce

As agentic AI quickly spreads across financial services, Visa has joined the growing number of firms that are writing protocols to guide how AI agents communicate with each other. 

Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol uses a framework to recognize trusted AI agents, distinguish those agents from rogue agents and guide communication. The card network's partners include Adyen, Ant, Checkout.com, Coinbase, Elavon, CyberSource, Fiserv, Microsoft, Nuvei, Shopify, Stripe and Worldpay. 

"Our new agent protocol is focused on creating no-code functionality for merchants to securely identify agents with an intent to buy and provide a better payments and personalized experience for its known users," Jack Forestell, chief product and strategy officer for Visa, said in a release. 

Among other firms, Google recently announced an agentic AI partnership with PayPal to boost adoption of Google's Agent Payments Protocol. Coindesk recently issued a similar protocol. —John Adams  

Coinbase front desk
Michael Short/Bloomberg

Coinbase, Mastercard reportedly vying to acquire BVNK for $2B

Coinbase and Mastercard are separately in advanced talks to purchase stablecoin infrastructure fintech BVNK, according to Fortune

A potential deal for London-based BVNK could go for between $1.5 to $2.5 billion, according to anonymous sources. An acquisition at that price would mark the largest deal for a stablecoin company following Stripe's acquisition of Bridge

BVNK provides payments infrastructure for stablecoin transactions. Last week it secured funding from Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of Citi, the company told CNBC. Visa has also invested in BVNK. —Joey Pizzolato

SoftBank signage
Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

SoftBank's PayPay eyes $20B valuation with US IPO

PayPay, the SoftBank-backed mobile payments app, is eyeing more than a 3 trillion yen ($20 billion) valuation in its U.S. IPO planned for as early as December, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources. 

Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, Mizuho and Morgan Stanley were reportedly tapped by SoftBank in August to help usher in the offering. 

PayPay, which was founded in 2018 as a joint venture between SoftBank and Yahoo Japan, offers a digital wallet and payments services to consumers and businesses in the country, processes 4.7 billion transactions each year and has 63 million users. 

The report comes as fintech and payment IPOs saw a resurgence following a two-year lull. Klarna debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in September and auto lending fintech Lendbuzz also filed for a public offering that month. Investment automation fintech Wealthfront also filed for an IPO, but the ongoing government shutdown was expected to hamper those plans. —Joey Pizzolato 

flag of Brazil
Alvaro Almeida/Adobe Stock

Brazilian payment fintech PicPay considers public offering in US

PicPay, a Brazilian mobile banking and payment fintech that offers digital wallets, loans and acquiring services, is looking to make a second go at a U.S. initial public offering, Bloomberg reported

The company is hoping for a $500 million fundraise and working with Bank of America, Citi and Royal Bank of Canada on a potential listing, according to reports, which cited sources familiar with the matter. 

An IPO would mark the company's second attempt at a U.S. public listing, according to Bloomberg. PicPay filed for an IPO in April 2021 with an eye toward an $8 billion valuation, but later withdrew that filing in June 2022. —Joey Pizzolato

Checkout.comBL
Bloomberg

Checkout.com inks payment deal with meal app HelloFresh

Checkout.com's quest to expand its merchant acquiring game has made progress through a partnership with HelloFresh, which operates a global meal delivery app.

The London-based Checkout.com will integrate its local merchant acquiring services with HelloFresh, which operates in 18 markets, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and Europe.

Checkout.com has applied for a merchant acquirer limited purpose bank, or MALPB, charter in Georgia, which would allow Checkout.com to be its own merchant acquirer. Checkout.com, which acts as a payment processor in the U.S. and a processor and acquirer in the U.K., is expanding its payment technology over the past few years as it pursues large enterprise clients in international markets against rivals such as PayPal, Block and Stripe. These firms are under pressure to reach merchants that are reducing technology partners to save money. —John Adams  

HSBC
Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

HSBC extends digital merchant tech to India, Singapore

With banks and payment companies rushing to invest in growing e-commerce markets in India and Singapore, HSBC is launching digital merchant services in both locations. The service supports cards, digital wallet, real-time payments and other options through a single interface. HSBC earlier launched the service in Hong Kong.

Merchants can also access reporting, reconciliation, faster settlement times and an easier option to connect the merchants' technology with the bank's core. It also enables connections to merchant's other cash management and liquidity systems, which HSBC says will make it easier for the bank to partner with fintechs. 

"[India and Singapore] are two markets where digital commerce is advancing at pace, and merchants need payment solutions that are as dynamic as the customers they serve. By combining HSBC's global reach with local specialization, we can help businesses of all sizes grow confidently, domestically and across borders," Manish Kohli, head of global payments solutions at HSBC, said in a release. HSBC plans to expand the service to other countries in the coming months. —John Adams

Wise72121BL
Bloomberg News

Wise to enter UAE with central bank approval

Money transmission fintech Wise has secured approval from the Central Bank in the United Arab Emirates to begin operating in the country, the company said Tuesday. 

The Central Bank granted Wise a license that will allow consumers and businesses in the UAE to hold, spend and transfer money in and out of the country. 

The licenses open the door for Wise to access the 200-plus nationalities that call UAE home and the approximately $40 billion in payments that move cross-border in the country. Visa has also recently introduced premium services in the country. 

"These regulatory approvals mark a significant milestone for Wise in the UAE, and we're grateful for the CBUAE's collaborative approach and commitment to fostering financial innovation," said Joyce Lau, country manager of Wise UAE, in a statement. "For the UAE's diverse population, this means access to a truly global financial account that works seamlessly across borders."

Wise has more than 70 regulatory licenses around the world, according to the company. —Joey Pizzolato

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