Mastercard Advances Agentic Payments in Latin America and the Caribbean With Live Transactions Completed Across the Region

WHY THIS MATTERS: This live deployment of agentic payments across Latin America and the Caribbean is a profound validation of the card network’s enduring relevance in the age of generative AI. This is no longer a sandbox experiment; it is the commercialization of an entirely new payment initiation layer. By confirming that AI agents can securely execute real-world transactions using existing card infrastructure and Agentic Tokens, Mastercard has shown that the next phase of embedded finance will be driven by autonomous actors. Crucially, the move leverages LAC’s high readiness, effectively positioning a dynamic region as the global proving ground for the secure future of commerce. Financial institutions and merchants everywhere should take note: the critical differentiator for AI-driven transactions will be the ability to guarantee trust and accountability, a challenge addressed head-on here with the integration of a verifiable intent layer. This signals the shift from concept to scaled infrastructure.

Mastercard announced the successful execution of live, end-to-end agentic payment transactions across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), marking a major step forward in bringing AI-driven commerce from concept to real-world application. These transactions demonstrate AI agents actively initiating and completing payments on behalf of customers, with full cardholder consent, using existing payment infrastructure.

While agentic commerce continues to mature, much of the industry remains focused on readiness and early experimentation. These transactions show that agentic payments can operate today – securely and at scale – on the Mastercard network and in regions primed for adoption. All the transactions were performed in controlled environments using Mastercard Agent Pay, the company’s infrastructure for enabling secure, scalable and trusted payments in agentic commerce.

Participating processors and issuers in the region, including BAC, Banco de la Nacion Argentina, Banco Falabella, Banco Galicia, Banco Itaú, Banco Ripley, Banco Security de BICE, Bancolombia (a Cibest Group company), Banamex, Cencosud-Scotiabank, Davivienda, Dock, Evertec, Oriental Bank, Pomelo, Santander, and ueno bank executed live, fully authorized transactions with debit and credit cards to purchase products ranging from makeup and beauty accessories to groceries, books and digital goods. The transactions were enabled in partnership with regional processors and merchant payment platforms, supporting end‑to‑end authorization across issuers, merchants and the Mastercard network.

These real-world purchases illustrate how agentic commerce can support both everyday and digital use cases. All transactions were fully authorized with cardholder consent, and participants in the payment flow could clearly see and recognize that an AI agent conducted the transaction.

How agentic payments work

Agentic payments enable AI-powered agents to search, recommend and complete transactions on behalf of users, while keeping consumers firmly in control. Applying the same principles that underpin global card payments — security, trust, interoperability and scale — Mastercard Agent Pay allows agentic transactions to be executed with:

• Agentic Tokens that secure payment credentials stored with AI agents, using dynamic and cryptographic data to provide issuers with full visibility and control
• Built-in biometric authentication through Mastercard Payment Passkeys, along with traceability and fraud protections
• End-to-end transparency for issuers and merchants across the transaction lifecycle

To support trusted agentic-initiated commerce, Mastercard is also embedding Verifiable Intent, its open, standards-based trust layer purpose-built for agentic payments, directly into the payment flow. This creates a tamper-resistant record of exactly what a cardholder authorized when an AI agent acts on their behalf, establishing a shared source of truth across consumers, merchants and financial institutions. This helps distinguish legitimate activity from fraud and enables faster resolution if something goes wrong.

Mastercard’s Agent Pay Acceptance Framework is also being leveraged in the region to secure agentic transactions by requiring agent registration and verification before any transactions take place across the Mastercard network.

Latin America is primed for agentic commerce

With nearly 100% of issuers in Latin America already enabled with Mastercard’s agentic token technology, the region is uniquely positioned to adopt agentic payments at scale. This strong foundation allows AI-initiated transactions to move from concept to execution without introducing new rails or credentials. The successful execution of these transactions confirms that the foundational infrastructure is already in place to support AI initiated commerce across multiple markets.

“Agentic payments represent a fundamental shift in how commerce is initiated and executed,” said Andrea Scerch, President, Mastercard Latin America and the Caribbean. “Building on early momentum in the region, we are now seeing agentic payments move from concept to reality across Latin America, with partners actively executing transactions in live environments. This isn’t a lab exercise or a future roadmap – these are real transactions happening today on our network. We see this as a critical step in building trusted, scalable AI driven commerce across the region.”

Customers’ quotes

“At BAC, innovation is about anticipating how our customers will want to interact with commerce in the future. Participating in these early agent‑initiated transactions allows us to explore how AI can become a trusted participant in payments, working alongside existing card infrastructure. This milestone reinforces our commitment to shaping the next phase of digital commerce in Central America, ensuring we’re ready as agentic experiences move from experimentation to everyday use,” said Jaime Compte, Corporate Senior Vice President of Retail Banking, SMEs, and Payment Methods at BAC.

Banco de la Nación Argentina stated that, “we are driving a deep digital transformation aimed at delivering more agile, secure, and scalable solutions for millions of Argentinians. Participation in these agentic transactions represents a meaningful step forward on that journey, incorporating new technologies that expand the capabilities of the payments ecosystem without compromising the highest standards of security and governance.”

“From Banco Falabella’s perspective, incorporating agent‑initiated payments is especially relevant, as it responds to a growing consumption trend among our customers. Participating in these early transactions allowed us to observe how AI‑driven purchasing can be integrated into real shopping experiences, while continuing to meet the security and authorization standards required across the payments ecosystem,” noted Maia Hojman, CEO, at Banco Falabella.

“Today’s transactions are just the beginning. We see significant potential for agentic payments across everyday purchases, digital services and new consumer experiences as the ecosystem continues to evolve. Our collaboration with Mastercard on Agent Pay ensures we’re shaping that future with security, transparency and customer trust at the core,” said Liliana Vásquez, VP of Payments, Flows, and Insurance, at Cibest Group. 

“These first transactions are just a starting point. With Mastercard, we were able to test an agent initiated transaction to see how AI driven commerce performs under real authorization conditions. It’s a strong first step, and it reinforces the importance of continuing to evolve issuer controls and operational readiness as agentic payments mature,” said Sinead O’Connor, CEO Consumer Bank, at Banamex.

Banco Itaú stated that “working closely with Mastercard gave us confidence to move from discussion to execution. The approach with Agent Pay ensured that trust, traceability and issuer visibility were designed into the flow from the start, not added later”.

“At Dock, we are proud to partner with Mastercard in this important step forward. As transactions become more intelligent and seamless, trusted infrastructure plays an important role in bringing this innovation into real-world adoption,” said Henrique Casagrande, CEO SaaS, at Dock.

What’s next

Mastercard will continue working with partners across Latin America and the Caribbean to expand use cases, onboard additional participants and scale agentic payments responsibly.

Through its growing portfolio of agentic products, services and capabilities — including Mastercard Agent Pay, Mastercard Agent Suite, the Mastercard Developers Agent Toolkit, and the Mastercard Virtual C‑Suite — the company is delivering end‑to‑end solutions designed to support the growth, scale and readiness of agentic commerce across the ecosystem around the world.

These capabilities help issuers, merchants and businesses securely adopt AI‑driven commerce models while maintaining strong standards for trust, transparency and control.

FF NEWS TAKE: This unequivocally moves the needle, transforming the global discussion on agentic commerce from theory to practical deployment. By onboarding a comprehensive list of LAC issuers and processors, Mastercard is setting the necessary security and interoperability standard that bypasses the need for new payment rails. The immediate focus shifts from infrastructure rollout to adoption: we must watch how rapidly local merchants integrate Verifiable Intent protocols and how quickly regional regulators formalize governance around AI-initiated liability.