NEW YORK — Six banks have issued joint principles for “agentic commerce,” seeking to shape how artificial intelligence agents help consumers shop and make payments while keeping customers in control.
NatWest Group, ASB Bank, Bank of America, Capital One, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ING Group said Tuesday that their paper is meant to guide discussion across the payments industry. The principles address five areas: transparency; safety; privacy and data; choice; and interoperability, or the ability of different systems to work together.
Agentic commerce could allow an AI tool to move beyond recommending products and take steps toward a purchase on a customer’s behalf. That raises questions about how a customer authorizes a transaction, what information an agent can access and who is responsible if something goes wrong.
Mark Monaco, Bank of America’s head of global payments solutions, said confidence in the technology will require attention to “identity, authorization, fraud prevention, liability management and customer protection.”
Goal to Help Consumers
The banks said their principles are intended to help consumers and merchants retain choice and flexibility in how they pay and get paid. They invited other banks and payments companies to help develop a practical blueprint for applying them. The paper does not establish binding standards.
“As AI agents enter the payments ecosystem, customers must remain in control, understand what the agent is doing, and have confidence that their data and payments are secure,” said Hans Overeem, ING Group’s head of payments.
The effort comes as payments organizations work through how to verify that an AI agent has a consumer’s permission to buy something. EMVCo, which develops payment specifications, released a draft framework this month focused in part on establishing consumer intent and delegated authority for purchases initiated by AI agents.
Mark Brant, NatWest Group’s chief payments officer, said AI agents could make it faster for customers to find and buy what they need, but that customers must trust that their money is safe and that they remain in control of payments.
