Santander and Mastercard complete Europe's first live agentic AI transaction in banking

Santander and Mastercard complete Europe's first live agentic AI transaction

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. Th solution would allow AI agents to complete transactions on behalf of customers, while maintaining security and privacy standards. The move marks advancement of agentic AI within a regulated bank framework. The transaction was processed by Santander's live payments infrastructure through Mastercard Agent Pay. Matías Sánchez, global head of cards and digital solutions at Santander, said: "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." The solution i still in pilot stage and is not being rolled out commercially. The next phase is to ensure technical and operational readiness for AI-driven end-to-end payments. Kelly Devine, president, Europe at Mastercard, commented: "This milestone with Banco Santander demonstrates that innovation and trust can advance together." Last week, Santander announced that the bank expects to generate €1 billion from AI investments over the next two years.

Mastercard and Santander Mark Agentic Payment Milestone | PYMNTS.com

The transaction marks the first agentic payment conducted within a regulated banking framework. It also represents "a significant milestone in the application of AI systems capable of initiating and completing transactions on behalf of customers," the release said. Santander carried out the transaction in a "controlled environment" using Agent Pay, the agentic AI-driven payments program introduced by Mastercard last year, per the release. "The transaction was processed through Santander's live payments infrastructure to validate the end-to-end operational and control framework under real conditions," the release said. "The solution enables AI agents to initiate and execute payments on behalf of customers within predefined limits and permissions." This lets AI systems securely and transparently complete a purchase via existing payment networks, while upholding strict security, privacy and consumer protection standards, according to the release. "At Santander, we see AI as a transformative force in the evolution of payments," Matías Sánchez, global head of cards and digital solutions at Santander, said in the release. "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." Meanwhile, Kaushik Gopal, executive vice president of business and market insights at Mastercard, told PYMNTS last month that leaders should treat agentic AI as a shift in how work gets done. "Ultimately, when we get to this agentic world where a lot of activity is delegated, it is ensuring that there is a highly secure framework that is protecting that activity," Gopal said. "That's what creates a high level of trust and confidence from ecosystem participants to engage in that space."