Mastercard Unveils Verifiable Intent Open Standard for AI Agent Transactions

As AI agents increasingly search for products, place orders and make payments on consumers’ behalf, proving that they acted with the user’s authorization has become a major issue for the financial industry. Mastercard has introduced the Verifiable Intent open standard, aiming to reduce the risks that autonomous transactions could be tampered with, misused or leave accountability unclear.

Mastercard’s newly announced Verifiable Intent open-source framework uses a cryptographic audit trail to link a consumer’s identity, original instructions and final transaction outcome. This allows merchants and financial institutions to verify the basis on which an AI agent was authorized to act. The framework is compatible with existing AI protocols from OpenAI, Google and others. No formal launch date, transaction value or list of participating institutions has been disclosed.