Mastercard has delivered what are said to be Australia’s first fully authenticated agentic transactions.

According to Mastercard, its Agent Pay framework enables seamless interoperability between issuers, acquirers and merchants.

“By adhering to industry standards, consumers and businesses benefit from trusted and consistent agent-powered experiences, regardless of which partners or platforms are involved,” says the company.

Australia’s first Agent Pay transactions saw a Commonwealth Bank of Australia issued debit card used to purchase cinema tickets from Event Cinemas. The transaction was fully authorised with cardholder consent, and every participant in the payment flow – issuer, acquirer and merchant – could see and recognise that an agent conducted the transaction.

Building on this, a Westpac-issued credit card was used to book accommodation in Thredbo, NSW.

Both transactions were processed through IPSI and completed using Maincode’s sovereign large language model, Matilda.

Mastercard Australasia Division President Paul Monnington says agentic commerce represents one of the most profound shifts in consumer behaviour seen in decades.

“Our role is to ensure this future is built on trust, security and transparency – the same principles Australians expect from card payments,” he says.

“Today’s milestone shows what’s possible when technology and governance come together.”

This latest milestone follows successful Agent Pay launches in the US, as well as pilots in the UAE and Latin America.

Accelerating agentic commerce

Mastercard says it’s focused on advancing agentic commerce across Australasia and Asia Pacific with additional efforts:

• Establishing a regional AI Centre of Excellence to accelerate innovation and governance for agentic commerce.
• Building deep partnerships with leading LLM providers across Asia Pacific.
• Deploying dedicated agentic commerce teams across the region to support financial institutions and merchants as they transition to agent-led experiences – including a dedicated team based at Mastercard’s Sydney Tech Hub.