Learn: AI agent payments for banks.
Practical guides for bankers, risk teams, investors and agent builders on how AI agents can safely make payments from bank accounts.
AI agent payments: what banks need before they say yes
How banks and credit unions can let customers' AI agents make payments safely: agent identity, signed mandates, human approval, off switches and evidence packs.
GuideWhy US banks restricted AI agents in October 2026
In October 2026 JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi and others restricted third-party AI agents. What happened, why, and what banks need to let agents back in safely.
GuideUCC 4A and AI agent payments: a practical guide
How UCC Article 4A's commercially reasonable security procedure applies to payments initiated by AI agents on business bank accounts, and why mandates and approvals matter.
GuideWhat a mandate for an AI agent should contain
The fields every AI agent payment mandate should include: agent, payees, per-payment and monthly limits, accounts, expiry, approval rules and signature, with an example.
GuideKnow Your Agent is not enough: identity versus permission
Know Your Agent tells a bank which AI agent is calling. It does not say what the agent may do. Why banks need customer mandates, approvals and evidence on top of KYA.
GuideRegulation E and AI agents: who pays when an agent gets it wrong?
How Regulation E applies when a consumer's AI agent makes an electronic fund transfer: the 'access device' exception, revocation, liability limits, error resolution and what banks can do.
Glossary
- AI agent payment
- A payment initiated by software acting on behalf of a person or business, such as an AI assistant paying a supplier invoice.
- Mandate
- A signed instruction from the account holder defining what an agent may do: payees, limits, accounts, expiry and exception rules.
- Know Your Agent (KYA)
- Verification of an agent's identity, operator and the party it represents.
- Evidence pack
- One record per agent action showing identity signal, mandate version, checks, approver and the instruction sent to the payment rail.
- Security procedure (UCC 4A)
- A procedure agreed between bank and business customer to verify payment orders; if commercially reasonable and followed in good faith, the customer is generally bound.
- MCP
- Model Context Protocol, a common way for AI applications to connect to tools and services.
- Personal Agent Protocol
- A draft open standard from Sierra and Meta (October 2026) for how personal agents sign in to businesses and request scopes.
- AP2
- Google's Agent Payments Protocol, which uses signed mandates for agent-initiated commerce.