Thredd and Visa enable AI-powered card payments across Europe with agentic commerce launch

Thredd and Visa Enable AI-Powered Card Payments for EU | PYMNTS.com

Thredd's participation will enable European financial institutions to process AI-initiated transactions without replacing their existing payment infrastructures, the release said. The integration's rollout will include consumer payments platform Zilch, which will be among the first issuers on the Thredd platform to activate these capabilities for its cardholders. As the market transitions toward agentic commerce, where AI software independently locates products and executes purchases, Thredd aims to position itself at the "trust layer" of the payments ecosystem, according to the release. Under this model, trust verification adapts to new technologies. For example, a customer can instruct an AI agent to find an item within a set budget. After a single biometric confirmation via a Visa Payment Passkey, the agent finalizes the purchase directly on the user's behalf, the release said. To facilitate this, Thredd relies on established infrastructure like the Visa Token Service, ensuring that AI agents interact only with secure tokens instead of underlying card credentials, according to the release. It further builds on this infrastructure with specialized tokens and custom fraud rules designed to catch AI-specific anomalies, such as deviation from a user's set parameters. "Agentic commerce represents a fundamental shift in how payments will work, and getting the infrastructure right from the outset is critical," Zilch CEO Philip Belamant said in the release. "Through the partnership], we're ensuring that as AI agents become a natural part of how our customers shop and spend, the trust, security and control that defines the Zilch experience remains intact." Similarly, Thredd CEO Jim McCarthy emphasized the importance of delivering a seamless transition for financial institutions. "Every major shift in payments requires a trusted layer that can turn ecosystem complexity into scalable capability," McCarthy said in the release. Through its participation in the program, "Thredd is providing that bridge, enabling issuers across Europe to become agent-ready through the platform they already trust," McCarthy added. Meanwhile, AI is transforming credit and payments from static, origination-based products into dynamic, transaction-level features. The market is shifting toward "agentic credit," using real-time transaction intelligence embedded directly into the payment flow. Thredd Chief Product Officer Ryan Dew told PYMNTS in May that the new frontier of innovation lies squarely at the point of transaction, where richer, contextual data allows AI systems to make continuous, rapid decisions. As consumers increasingly expect automated and personalized financial experiences, platforms equipped to securely execute programmable payments are positioned to lead the next wave of global commerce. For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.

Thredd Joins the Visa Agentic Ready Programme, Bringing Agent Network Readiness to Issuers Across Europe, Starting with Zilch

Thredd announced it has joined the Visa Agentic Ready programme, enabling issuers across Europe to participate in agent-initiated payments without rebuilding their payments infrastructure. Consumer payments platform Zilch will be among the first issuers on the platform to enable agent-initiated payments for its cardholders. As a processor and enabler, Thredd sits at the trust layer of the payments ecosystem. By joining the programme, Thredd is ready to support Visa and its clients as the market moves into agentic commerce. Agentic commerce introduces a new type of payment initiator: An AI agent acting on a cardholder's behalf. The core payments principles do not change. Cardholder permission, issuer approval, authentication and fraud monitoring all still apply. What changes is how trust is established and enforced at the point an agent transacts. Taking a Zilch customer as an example, a cardholder might ask an AI agent to find a product within a set budget. The agent returns a recommendation, and with a single confirmation the cardholder instructs it to complete the purchase using their Zilch card. A Visa Payment Passkey confirms the cardholder's intent through biometric authentication, and the agent initiates the purchase with the merchant on the cardholder's behalf. Thredd's approach extends capabilities issuers already rely on, rather than asking them to start from scratch. The foundation for day-one network enablement is in place today: Tokenisation: Scheme tokenisation through Visa Token Service (VTS), so an agent only ever sees a token, never the underlying credential; Device binding: Linking tokens to trusted devices; Visa Payment passkeys: Secure biometric authentication, allowing a cardholder to authorise a transaction completed on their behalf.