Argentina’s Banco Nacion (BNA) and Mastercard executed the first live agent payment transaction in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to BNA’s official statement released on March 24. This operation was performed in a controlled environment via Mastercard Agent Pay and was initiated by an artificial intelligence (AI) agent using debit and credit cards with the explicit consent of each account holder.
Transactions were processed in the following manner, without specifying type or amount: Within bank cards and traditional payment systemsThis represents progress towards the integration of AI agents into the region’s established financial infrastructure.
Agent payments are transactions that an artificial intelligence program autonomously performs on your behalf. Explore options, make a decision, and complete payment No user intervention is required at each step.
According to a statement from BNA, the transaction was supported by three security mechanisms that are part of the Mastercard Agent Pay system developed by Mastercard.
- The first is the agent token– Similar to how contactless payments work on mobile phones, payment credentials are protected with dynamic encrypted data that replaces the actual card data with each transaction.
- The second is biometric authentication. Verify the identity of the owner via the Mastercard Payments Passkey before allowing any agent operations.
- The third one is verifiable intent.a mechanism that securely records user authentication and allows legitimate operations to be distinguished from potential fraud, but the statement did not elaborate on its technical operations.
These three tools aim to determine who is responsible when an AI agent performs an incorrect or unwanted transaction.
In response, BNA clarified that three mechanisms will allow AI agents to be integrated as visible participants within payment systems, while maintaining the industry’s traditional principles: Security, interoperability, reliability and scale«.
As CriptoNoticias has already reported, using agents for autonomous payments implies financial risks such as: cause financial loss It is a product of potential error. These include, for example, the agent generating valid but incorrect addresses, confusing the unit, and even being able to be manipulated by instruction injection, a technique that introduces malicious instructions into the data that the agent processes.
argentina, banks, virtual currency
The test by BNA and Mastercard comes at a time when Argentina’s financial system is facing potential changes. As reported by CriptoNoticias, the Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina (BCRA) Allowing banks to offer the purchase, sale and storage of cryptocurrencieslikely to be approved in April 2026.
This wouldn’t be the first time. In 2022, Galicia, Burbank, and Huara each launched services using crypto assets, but three days later the BCRA intervened and banned such operations. Starting in 2024, only exchanges registered as virtual asset service providers (PSAVs) will be able to offer virtual currencies in Argentina.
Once this restriction is lifted, banks will have to choose between developing their own infrastructure or partnering with already registered exchanges. Argentinian crypto trading platform Lemon warns about this change Should be accompanied by a tax audit Equalizes conditions between banks and PSAV.
Taken together, Mastercard’s potential for proxy payments and BCRA’s opening up to crypto assets point in the same direction. Argentina’s financial system expands the scope of what banks can do, but in both cases the specific deadlines and the actual scope of users remain undefined.
(Tag Translate)Argentina
