Visa, Santander Launch Agentic Payments Project in Latin America

Generative AI is moving beyond answering questions toward acting on a user’s behalf, including selecting goods and initiating payments. That shift raises new questions over consent, authentication, fraud controls and accountability. Visa and Bank of China (Hong Kong), or BOCHK, are testing agent-initiated commerce in a controlled Hong Kong environment to assess whether automated transactions can be executed securely.

The proof of concept is being conducted under the GenA.I. Sandbox++ initiative. BOCHK’s AI agent will connect with the BOC Pay+ ecosystem and merchant platforms, while Visa supplies the underlying secure payment infrastructure needed to automate transactions. The announcement did not disclose a test launch date, transaction value, number of participating merchants or timetable for a commercial rollout.

Generative AI is evolving from answering questions to shopping, subscribing to services and initiating transactions on users’ behalf. That shift exposes a gap in payment infrastructure built around human cardholders and conventional merchant checkouts. Visa and Mastercard are developing dedicated rails for AI agents, while stablecoin and cryptocurrency protocols are targeting micropayments, machine-to-machine settlement and the identity and authorization controls autonomous commerce requires.

The latest reported tally as of Aug. 6, 2026, put AI-agent payment volume at only about $136 million, underscoring how early the market remains. Visa and Mastercard are competing to control the gateway for automated transactions, while onchain providers are pitching programmable, low-cost stablecoin payments for small purchases. Both camps are seeking to solve a central constraint: enabling an AI agent to prove its identity and spending authority before money moves.

Visa and Artemis examined the rise of machine-native payments as artificial-intelligence agents evolve from advisory tools into entities capable of placing orders and purchasing services autonomously. Protocols including x402 and MPP are emerging to handle the high-frequency, low-value transactions generated by those agents, challenging banks and card networks to rethink payment infrastructure, identity controls, risk management and regulatory compliance.

The research found that AI-agent activity across x402 and MPP generated more than 110 million transactions during the 12 months covered by the report. The volume underscores the rapid expansion of micropayments as autonomous software becomes an active participant in commerce. Visa said established payment providers risk disintermediation unless they develop systems that can process agent-led transactions instantly and cheaply while preserving verification, consumer safeguards and compliance oversight.

Small and medium-sized businesses often lack dedicated procurement teams, leaving owners to handle supplier searches, purchasing and payments manually. Visa and Lianlian DigiTech are applying agentic AI to that workflow through LoopXPay, an AI agent designed to act within predefined spending limits and approval rules. The test is significant because it demonstrates how companies could automate procurement while retaining visibility, transaction controls and human oversight.

Visa and Lianlian DigiTech said on July 24, 2026, that LoopXPay completed the first live B2B agentic transaction in Greater China. Acting for a small business, the agent sourced a product sample, identified the purchasing requirement, recommended and compared suppliers, placed the order and securely executed payment in one workflow. The companies did not disclose the transaction value. LoopXPay has also been registered in Visa’s Agentic Directory, which identifies verified AI agents.

Alchemy has launched AgentCard, allowing AI agents to transact over Visa’s payment network without requiring a person to handle each transaction. The service uses payment tokens issued by Visa while retaining existing credit-card rewards, protections and credit limits, showing that agentic commerce is moving beyond automated shopping to actual payments.

The latest development gives AgentCard access to the Visa network. Each AI agent can be assigned a dedicated email address and phone number for merchant identity verification and transaction processing. Alchemy has not disclosed an exact launch date, partner card issuer, transaction amounts or credit limits, and has so far focused on outlining the service’s features.

AI agents are evolving from providing recommendations to searching, making decisions and paying on consumers’ behalf. The shift requires the payments industry to address authorization, identity verification, risk controls and consumer control. Building on Visa Intelligent Commerce, Visa Agentic Ready allows issuers to test agentic transactions over existing card networks, moving the concept into controlled, real-world payment flows.

Visa launched the program in Europe on March 17, 2026, with 21 issuers participating, including Barclays, HSBC UK and Revolut. It expanded to Latin America and the Caribbean on April 29, followed by 10 Asia-Pacific markets with more than 50 partners on April 30. Taiwan’s initial group includes nine issuers, among them Cathay United Bank, CTBC Bank and E.SUN Bank. Visa did not disclose an investment amount.

Generative AI is moving beyond shopping recommendations toward agentic commerce, in which AI can select products, place orders and make payments on consumers' behalf. As a card issuer, payment network and acquirer, American Express could help clarify liability for mistaken purchases by verifying an agent's identity and purchasing intent. Such safeguards could also reduce the risks consumers and merchants face in adopting AI payments.

American Express released its Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE) developer toolkit on April 14, 2026. It covers agent registration, account linking, intent recognition, payment credentials and shopping-cart information. The company also said the forthcoming Amex Agent Purchase Protection would cover eligible purchases made in error by AI agents. American Express did not disclose the investment amount, coverage limit or formal launch date.

Agentic commerce allows software to search for, select and purchase products with a user’s authorization, making identity verification, payment authorization and risk controls critical. Visa launched Visa Intelligent Commerce on April 30, 2025, to provide payment APIs to AI platforms. Connect further integrates the connection process, lowering adoption barriers for merchants, agent developers and payment service providers.

Visa unveiled Intelligent Commerce Connect on April 8, 2026. Through a single integration with the Visa Acceptance Platform, businesses can initiate payments, tokenize credentials, set spending controls and perform authentication, with support for APIs from Visa and other card networks. Seven companies, including AWS, Mesh and Payabli, are piloting the service, with a broader rollout planned during 2026. Visa did not disclose pricing or an investment amount.

Visa and Mastercard, whose businesses have long centered on card transactions and fees, are extending Agentic AI into corporate operations and payment back offices. Visa is targeting dispute handling, while Mastercard is serving small and medium-sized businesses that lack full management teams. The initiatives reflect the card networks' shift toward becoming technology service providers.

On March 10, 2026, Mastercard launched Virtual C-Suite, beginning with a virtual CFO that analyzes cash flow and risk. Visa and ServiceNow are advancing a dispute-management system that routes and prioritizes cases and organizes documents. Issuers write off an average of $3.3 million annually and spend more than 360 hours preparing for audits, while Mastercard estimates that each case costs $9.08–$10.32.

AI agent payments allow systems not only to recommend products but also to complete transactions autonomously within spending limits and authorizations set by users. The significance of the collaboration between Banco Santander and Mastercard lies in bringing this form of agentic commerce into a regulated banking framework and testing whether existing payment networks can maintain security, privacy and consumer protection.

On March 2, 2026, Banco Santander used Mastercard Agent Pay in a controlled environment, with PayOS providing end-to-end orchestration, to complete Europe’s first live transaction initiated and executed by an AI agent through Santander’s existing payment infrastructure. The companies did not disclose the transaction value and stressed that the project remains a pilot and has not been commercially launched. They plan to expand testing and explore additional use cases.