Mastercard Tackles AI-Driven Online Commerce Fraud

Mastercard has announced a major initiative to combat a growing problem in online commerce: how merchants can trust software agents that shop on behalf of customers. The Know-Your-Agent project, unveiled in partnership with Visa and Ant International, aims to establish shared identity standards for purchasing agents.

The collaboration will use the BuildFin.ai platform, backed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to connect Mastercard's Verifiable Intent protocol, Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol, and Ant International's Agentic Mobile Protocol. This will enable card networks, digital wallets, marketplaces, and AI platforms to identify approved purchasing agents without surrendering control over their own authorization rules.

Mastercard handled 47.4 billion switched transactions last quarter, generating $9.28 billion in revenue. The company sees potential for increased purchasing activity on its network through the use of AI agents, but also acknowledges the risks associated with autonomous software authorizing transactions.