Worldline, ING, and Visa have completed a live agentic payment transaction in Germany.
According to the official press release, the transaction was designed to demonstrate how AI-enabled purchasing journeys can operate within existing regulatory requirements, including Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), while keeping the consumer and merchant in control throughout the process. As part of the initiative, Worldline and ING have joined Visa's Agentic Ready Programme.
The pilot was carried out in Germany, where a consumer defined the parameters of a purchase, including what to buy and when, and instructed a merchant AI agent to act within those boundaries. The agent identified a suitable product, after which the user authenticated the purchase intent using Visa Payment Passkeys. The transaction was then confirmed through biometric authentication and authorised by ING as the issuing bank. The full transaction was processed across Worldline's infrastructure, covering the journey from agent instruction to final authorisation.
Throughout the process, the AI agent operated within instructions set explicitly by the consumer, while ING retained control over the authorisation step. This structure was intended to preserve a verifiable record of what was authorised, by whom, and under which conditions, addressing a recurring concern around accountability in agent-initiated commerce.
Implications for merchants and the ecosystem
For merchants, the companies stated that the pilot shows agent-initiated commerce does not require a reduction in fraud protection or trust mechanisms. Because the transaction relied on Visa Payment Passkeys and was authorised by a financial institution under existing SCA requirements, merchants can, according to the companies, accept agent-initiated orders under conditions comparable to conventional online purchases, without developing separate payment infrastructure for AI-driven shopping.
Madalena Cascais Tomé, Member of the Executive Committee, Worldline, said the company's role is to connect participants across the payment value chain, including issuers, acquirers, merchants, and schemes, to support these emerging models while addressing the trust and security requirements needed for broader adoption. Furthermore, Hans Overeem, Head of Payments, ING Netherlands, added that the milestone shows agent-based payments can be both usable and auditable, citing the combination of biometrics and delayed capture as enabling flexible and secure purchasing. Mathieu Altwegg, Head of Product & Solutions, Visa Europe, said the Agentic Ready Programme, which now includes both Worldline and ING, supports real-world testing of AI-enabled purchasing journeys within defined parameters and existing payment controls.
Agentic commerce, in which AI agents act on a consumer's behalf within predefined limits, is an emerging area of focus for payment networks, issuers, and processors as they assess how existing authentication and authorisation frameworks can be adapted to new purchasing journeys. This pilot forms part of Visa's broader Intelligent Commerce initiative, which focuses on integrating payment credentials, consumer controls, and programmability into agentic use cases. The companies described the transaction as a contribution to the ongoing development of agentic commerce in Europe, intended to build confidence in the underlying technology among merchants, issuers, and consumers ahead of wider deployment.
