- Key insights: Visa's Intelligent Commerce is an attempt to make it easier for businesses to connect to agentic commerce.
- What's at stake: Businesses in most industries are at least considering how to use the new form of AI.
- Forward look: Both card networks are making agentic commerce a major part of their value-added services strategy.
Visa is launching a new agentic-commerce product, Visa Intelligent Commerce Connect, that it hopes will make it easier for businesses to take part in agentic commerce.
Intelligent Commerce Connect acts as a network, protocol and token vault-agnostic on-ramp to agentic commerce for agent builders, merchants and other parties that are involved in the ecosystem, and connects to Visa's Intelligence Commerce APIs and other networks' APIs, which will allow agents to pay with both Visa and non-Visa cards.
The service is currently running in pilots with Abu Dhabi-based
"From small businesses to the world's biggest retailers, Visa powers how people pay every day, millions of times over," Andrew Torre, Visa's president of value-added services, said in a statement. "Intelligent Commerce Connect brings that same, trusted payment acceptance infrastructure into the emerging world of AI-driven commerce, so businesses can let AI agents buy on behalf of consumers, securely and at scale."
Visa, along with Mastercard, Google and Stripe, have all been busy building out protocols, frameworks, rules and products that will both govern the way agents transact and allow businesses to participate in agentic commerce. —Joey Pizzolato
Mastercard completes agentic transaction in Thailand
Mastercard has completed another agentic transaction in the Asia-Pacific region.
The transaction was done with Krungthai Card, a Thai credit card and financial services company, and demonstrated a transportation transaction where an AI booked a ride from Suvarnabhumi airport to Central Chidlom through Elife, a global mobility provider.
"Thailand continues to be one of the region's most attractive travel destinations, and its dynamic travel environment provides an ideal, real-world testbed for agentic commerce," said Winnie Wong, Mastercard's country manager of Thailand and Myanmar, in a statement. "Through this collaboration with Krungthai Card (KTC), Mastercard's first partner in Thailand to test agentic AI transactions, consumer-authorized AI agents can help make travel experiences more seamless, while embedding trust, authentication, and security directly into payments."
APAC is a key region for Mastercard's agentic commerce strategy. The pilot transaction with Krungthai Card marks the seventh country in the region, including
Italian regulators fine Revolut over marketing materials
The
Authorities fined the company $13.3 million for distributing misleading content about investment products and banking, and $7 million for "aggressive practices in managing the suspension, limitation and blocking of payment accounts while omitting key information about terms and procedures. The authority also issued a fine of $2 million for failing to provide adequate information about the requirements to receive an Italian international bank account number instead of a Lithuanian IBAN when transferring accounts between the two countries after Revolut obtained an EU banking license. The regulator said Revolut's marketing suggested consumers could trade with no commission and invest in fractional shares for as low as about one euro.
Revolut is in the midst of an international expansion, including an application for a
In an email, Revolut's public relations office said "Revolut strongly disagrees with the AGCM's findings and will appeal the decision in the Italian courts. We remain confident that our communications are clear and transparent. The protection of our millions of customers is our absolute priority."
Revolut also said "We operate under rigorous Italian banking standards. Account reviews are mandatory and necessary to protect our customers and the integrity of the financial system … the transition to Italian IBANs followed rigorous local banking protocols. We are required by law to verify customer documentation and eligibility to ensure a secure, compliant, and orderly transition to the local entity. This will have no impact on Revolut's operations or financial position." —John Adams
Diebold Nixdorf lands travel pay deal in the Nordics
ATM maker Diebold Nixdorf, which has leaned on
FOREX, a travel money and foreign exchange in the Nordic region, has added Diebold Nixdorf's branch automation technology to support transactions at transportation centers.
The ATMs are deployed in train stations, shopping centers and other central high-traffic locations in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. Diebold Nixdorf will enable remote updates and repairs for the machines. Diebold Nixdorf has shipped more than 200,000 internet-enabled ATMs over the past three years, double the growth rate from 2020-2022, suggesting ATMs have retained their importance even as cash plays a less important role.
"Managing an ATM network today requires financial institutions to balance security, availability and cost, all while delivering a seamless consumer experience," Helena Müller, senior vice president of banking for Europe at Diebold Nixdorf, said in a release. —John Adams
UnionPay launches its agentic protocol
With
The protocol guides agent registration, user identity and standards for authorization. It is also designed to work with other protocols and can be used in and outside of China.
UnionPay used the protocol to execute an agentic transaction, a taxi booking in Hong Kong in partnership with technology firm Evonet. A rider entered booking information into Evonet's AI assistant, received a list of available taxi options and prices from Hoppa (a ride hailing app), and a booking recommendation. Mastercard also recently added Hong Kong to its agentic-commerce network, part of a series of
Swiss banks plot stablecoin
A group of Swiss banks has formed a sandbox to test a potential Swiss franc-backed stablecoin, an alternative to the mostly U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins that have dominated the
The banks are working with Sygnum, a digital asset banking group that has banking and payment licenses in Singapore.
UBS is also part of a consortium including Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs that is working on a stablecoin project. —John Adams
Banc of California's former head of payments joins CalPrivate Bank as COO
Michael Pierron, the former head of payments at Banc of California, will take the La Jolla, California-based bank's No. 2 job, effective immediately.
"We are excited to have Michael join the team. He is a smart operator and understands our goal of continuing to build a scalable client centric model," said Rick Sowers, president and CEO of CalPrivate Bank, in a statement. "His background in banking operations, technology and payments positions him well to contribute to our long-term strategy and strengthen our organization."
Pierron joins CalPrivate with more than 25 years of experience, most recently as the Banc of California's payment head. Pierron also worked at Flagstar Bank for 14 years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
CalPrivate Bank focuses on high-net-worth individuals and businesses, and offers banking services such as checking, savings and treasury management along with commercial loans. —Joey Pizzolato
Former chief risk officer at Visa joins Sardine as COO
Mike Lemberger, Visa's former North American executive vice president and chief risk officer, has joined Sardine, a fraud protection fintech, as the company's chief operating officer, he announced on LinkedIn. Sardine's customers include
Lemberger left Visa in December 2024 to "get back into the building game," according to a
"My path has never been a straight line," Lemberger said. "I started in engineering, moved into data, navigated global product roles across multiple continents, and eventually landed leading risk management. For me, a technical background is just the baseline.
"What has actually defined my success is the ability to drop into a new country or a new business challenge, read the room, and figure out how to bring people together to solve hard problems," he said. —Joey Pizzolato
