The payments industry just placed a very large bet on a future where software agents, not humans, handle the bulk of commercial transactions. Visa, Mastercard, and Fiserv are among the founding members of the Agentic Payments Alliance (APA), a coalition of more than 25 organizations designed to create shared standards for AI-driven commerce.
Rain, a stablecoin payment infrastructure provider, announced the formation of the APA on August 18. The coalition is structured without any single company owning or controlling it, operating instead as a collectively governed body where members shape its mission and objectives together.
What the alliance actually does
McKinsey projects global agentic commerce activity could hit $3 to $5 trillion by 2030. The alliance’s initial focus areas break down into five buckets: AI agent identity and authorization frameworks, shared research initiatives, fraud prevention mechanisms, loyalty program integration, and regulatory advocacy.
Several founding members aren’t starting from scratch. Visa has already launched its Agentic Ready Program, and Mastercard has developed its Agent Pay framework. Rain contributes its own Agentic Startup Program, an accelerator designed to support emerging businesses building in the agentic commerce space.
