‘Know your agent’: Banks face a new compliance challenge as AI agents shop and pay on their own

Banks are facing an emerging compliance issue known as "know your agent," as artificial intelligence agents begin shopping and making payments independently. Zhuoqun Bian, president of Ant Digital Technologies, highlighted the importance of understanding AI agents at the Fortune Leaders Forum in Macau on September 8. Unlike traditional customers, agents require verification of their ownership, authorization, and identity.

By 2030, agents could potentially handle $5 trillion in global consumer spending, according to a January McKinsey report. However, the existing infrastructure was not designed with AI agents in mind and needs to be rebuilt or enhanced. Ant International, Ant Group's global payments arm, has partnered with Mastercard and Visa to develop a "know your agent" interoperability framework.

This collaboration will allow card networks, digital wallets, and marketplaces to recognize trusted AI agents across ecosystems through BuildFin.ai, an industry platform supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The International Monetary Fund noted that AI agents are probabilistic and adaptive, which poses a challenge for payment systems that rely on predictable rules and clear accountability structures.

JPMorgan Private Bank's Benson Wong emphasized that while the technology of an agent has not caused any adverse outcomes, the issues typically arise from operational models, processes, and controls. He warned that the impact could be significantly larger if agentic workflows are not executed correctly, as the consequences scale with the autonomy of the agent.

Ultimately, Bian concluded that banks must know their agents as thoroughly as they know their customers.