Permission infrastructure for AI agent payments.
Assay lets banks and credit unions say yes to their business customers' AI agents. The customer signs a mandate, a person approves anything outside it, and every action leaves evidence your examiners can read. Your rails move the money. Assay never holds it.
Agents are at the door. Today's options all fall short.
Business owners want AI agents to pay suppliers, top up payroll and move cash. Today banks either let agents log in with the owner's password, block them, or allow read-only access that stops short of payments.
Shared passwords
The agent can do anything the owner can. You can't tell them apart, and nothing records who decided what.
Blanket blocks
Safe this quarter. Then the customer, and their deposits, move to whoever lets their agent in.
Read-only access
Useful for balances and insight. It stops at the step businesses actually want help with: paying.
A signature, a person, and a record.
Assay sits between your business accounts and your customers' agents. It uses identity signals from agent-verification providers and adds the three things banks need before agents can move money.
My agent may pay approved suppliers up to $2,000 each and $15,000 a month from Operating ••4821 until 31 Mar 2027. Anything new or larger, ask me.
- agent
- payables-agent
- payees
- approved_suppliers (14)
- max_each
- $2,000.00
- max_month
- $15,000.00
- bank_ceiling
- $25,000.00 / month · business tier
Approve $2,340.00?
payables-agent wants to pay Harbor Linen Supply. This is $340.00 over your per-payment limit.
- agent
- payables-agent · identity: verified · provider recorded
- request
- ACH $2,340.00 → Harbor Linen Supply · 14:02:11 ET
- mandate
- M-0193 v2 · signed J. Ortiz · passkey
- checks
- payee ✓ · per-payment limit ✕ · monthly cap ✓
- decision
- approval_required
- approval
- J. Ortiz · passkey · 14:02:38 ET
- execution
- sent to bank ACH rail · Assay held no funds
- hash
- sha256 9f2c…e41a
Customer funds held by Assay. Your existing rails execute every payment.
Evidence pack per agent action, including refusals and switch-offs.
Can switch an agent off: the bank and the customer.
Designed to support: MCP, the Personal Agent Protocol draft and AP2.
These describe how Assay is designed, not usage metrics. Assay is a prototype.
How banks handle agents today.
Each existing approach solves part of the problem. None lets an agent pay while the bank keeps control and a record.
| Shared passwords | Read-only data access | Blocking agents | Assay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agent can make payments | Yes | No | No | Yes, within a mandate |
| Customer keeps their password private | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bank knows which agent acted | No | Yes | n/a | Yes |
| Customer-set limits by payee and amount | No | n/a | n/a | Yes |
| Person approves exceptions | No | n/a | n/a | Passkey |
| Per-agent off switch | No | Revoke consent | n/a | Bank and customer |
| Evidence for examiners and disputes | No | Access logs | n/a | One record per action |
| Customer stays at your bank | Yes, at risk | Partly | At risk | Yes |
Fits between the agent and your core.
No new rails and no custody. Assay uses existing agent-identity signals, implements the agent protocols on your side and hands approved instructions to the systems you already run.
In October 2026 the biggest banks said "not like this."
Nobody has said how. The standards for agent access don't yet cover mandates, approvals, evidence or liability.
"Rogue agents"
JPMorgan's CEO says the bank won't let just any outside agent in, per press reports.1
A person in the loop
Bank of America's CEO says a person should approve money leaving an account.1
Under UCC 4A, a business customer is bound by a payment order when the bank followed an agreed, commercially reasonable security procedure in good faith. Assay's mandate, approval and evidence are built to be that procedure for agent payments. Your counsel decides.3
From risk and compliance teams.
Assay is a prototype. We don't yet hold a SOC 2 report, and we won't claim customers or partners we don't have.
Does Assay hold or move money?
No. Assay decides whether an agent's request may proceed and records what happened. Approved instructions go to your existing payment rails.
Is this live?
Not yet. Assay is a prototype and we can show you a live demo. We are recruiting design partners before any pilot.
Do we replace our agent-identity or fraud tools?
No. Assay uses identity signals from existing agent-verification providers and sits alongside your fraud and payment controls.
Who sets the limits, the bank or the customer?
Both. You set ceilings by account type. The customer signs a mandate within them. Neither can exceed what the other allows.
How fast is the off switch?
Immediate for new requests. One agent, one customer's agents or all agents. Customers can switch off their own.
What about consumer accounts?
Not first. Consumer liability for agent payments under Reg E is less settled. We start where the rules are clearest.
How would we buy it?
We expect to work with and through your digital-banking and core providers. If you're one of them, talk to us.
What does it cost?
We'll set pricing with our design partners.
Help write the rules for agent payments.
We're looking for a small group of US banks, credit unions and digital-banking vendors to shape mandates, approval thresholds and the evidence format with us. See it live first if you prefer.
Building an agent that pays from business bank accounts?