By Mukundan Sivaraj · AIM Media House
Mastercard and Banco Santander say they have completed what they describe as Europe’s first live, end-to-end payment executed by an AI agent. The transaction was processed using Mastercard’s Agent Pay framework.
Santander says the AI-initiated payment ran inside the bank’s regulated payment framework and within predefined customer limits as part of a controlled pilot rather than a commercial launch, according to a press release.
The European payments system operates under the European Union’s revised Payment Services Directive , known as PSD2.
Under PSD2, payment service providers must apply strong customer authentication when a payer initiates an electronic transaction, requiring at least two independent authentication factors, according to guidance published by the European Banking Authority.
Any AI-initiated transaction would need to comply with those authentication and liability requirements.
Matías Sánchez, global head of cards and digital solutions at Santander, said in a statement: “Our role is not only to adopt innovation, but to shape it responsibly, embedding security, governance and customer protection by design.
As AI agents become part of everyday commerce, building trusted, scalable frameworks will be essential to unlocking their full potential.” Mastercard and Visa Take Different Paths on AI Payments Mastercard introduced Agent Pay as infrastructure that allows AI systems to initiate and complete payments on behalf of users, according to company materials.
The Santander pilot places that capability inside a regulated banking environment, where authentication, transaction limits and liability rules are already defined under PSD2.
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