Ballerine has introduced a governance platform aimed at addressing risk, compliance, and oversight challenges linked to the rise of agent-driven commerce.
The company said the Trusted Agentic Commerce Governance Platform is designed for payment service providers (PSPs) and payment facilitators (PayFacs) that support merchants increasingly interacting with artificial intelligence (AI) agents throughout the purchasing process.
As AI agents become more involved in product discovery, selection, and transaction execution, merchants are required to meet new operational standards. These include maintaining accurate inventory data, clearly defined commercial policies, and dependable fulfilment processes. For PSPs, the shift raises questions around merchant accountability, dispute resolution, and policy enforcement. According to the official press release, merchants that fail to meet these expectations may find themselves excluded from agent-mediated purchasing environments, even if their products remain competitive.
Governance and oversight for agent-driven transactions
According to Ballerine, the new platform allows PSPs to manage agentic commerce readiness across their merchant base without establishing bespoke compliance or monitoring processes for each business. The company said PSPs can integrate the platform into existing offerings and present it to merchants as an additional service focused on governance and operational readiness.
Representatives from Ballerine indicated that agent-driven commerce represents a structural change rather than a minor update to online payments. They noted that PSPs are expected to play a larger role in ensuring merchants remain aligned with evolving technical and policy requirements, while maintaining oversight as new transaction models emerge.
The platform assesses merchant eligibility, enforces defined standards, and monitors inventory and behavioural data on an ongoing basis. Ballerine said that transactions initiated or mediated by AI agents generate audit-ready records, intended to support transparency and clarify responsibility in the event of disputes or policy breaches. The system is described as agent-agnostic and designed to operate across multiple commerce and AI environments.
Ballerine also highlighted its wider risk and compliance infrastructure, which leverages fraud data, business information, and regulatory workflows into a single operational framework. The company’s merchant monitoring tools are certified under Mastercard’s Merchant Monitoring Service Provider programme, which can reduce certain fee assessments for qualifying acquirers under specific conditions.
