TORONTO, May 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Visa today announced the expansion of its global program, Visa Agentic Ready, to issuers in Canada. The program is designed to help the Canadian payments ecosystem prepare for the next evolution of commerce, where AI agents may act on behalf of consumers to initiate and complete transactions securely and at scale. The program builds on Visa Intelligent Commerce, Visa's portfolio of initiatives enabling secure, AI-driven commerce experiences at scale and has been tailored to reflect the priorities and foundations of the Canadian market.

As the next generation of commerce takes shape, AI agents are moving beyond answering questions to acting, searching, deciding, and ultimately paying on behalf of consumers and businesses. This shift has meaningful implications for the global payments ecosystem, from how transactions are authorized to how trust, security, and control are maintained at scale.

A Structured Path to Agent-Ready Payments

Visa Agentic Ready is designed to help issuing banks and payment partners prepare for AI agent initiated commerce. The program enables participants to:

Test agent-initiated payments in controlled, real-world environments using live cards and real merchants
Validate core payment flows, including card enrollment, tokenization, authentication, and transaction authorization
Assess trust, security, and control mechanisms as AI agents take action on behalf of consumers and businesses
Identify operational and readiness gaps before agent-led transactions scale broadly
Collaborate with Visa and selected merchants to understand how agent-initiated transactions behave in practice
Prepare for global deployment as agent-driven commerce expands across markets.

"Visa Agentic Ready gives Canadian issuers a meaningful head start in preparing for agent-initiated commerce," said Michiel Wielhouwer, President and Country Manager, Visa Canada. "The program provides a controlled environment to test and validate how agent-initiated payments can operate responsibly within Canada, while building the confidence needed to move these experiences from concept to reality, on the secure payment rails people rely on every day."

Built for Canada, Grounded in Global Foundations

Visa Agentic Ready is powered by Visa's core trust infrastructure, bringing together tokenization, identity, authentication, risk management, and controls to support agent-initiated payments. As part of Visa's broader commitment to advancing toward 100% tokenization of online payments, these capabilities are widely adopted across Canada to help ensure that transactions initiated by AI agents remain clearly tied to a real person, with transparency, consent, and control at every critical moment.

As AI agents become a more integral part of how consumers shop and transact, the program helps Canadian issuers extend the protections people already expect into emerging, AI-driven commerce experiences.

Anchored in Canadian Partnership

Visa is working hand-in-hand with financial institutions across Canada's payments ecosystem, ensuring agent-driven commerce develops in step with local priorities and consumer expectations.

Early issuing partners participating in the Canadian program include BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank, and TD. Additional Canadian issuers are expected to join as the program continues to develop.

Visa Agentic Ready is already active in Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, and will continue rolling out to additional markets this year. The program builds on Visa Intelligent Commerce, Visa's portfolio of initiatives designed to enable secure, AI-driven commerce at scale—which has already launched in the United States across a broad set of agents and partners, with live transactions taking place today.

About Visa

Visa (NYSE:V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, sellers, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.ca

Media Contact

Tracy Truong

Canadamediainquiries@visa.com

Visa Expands 'Agentic Ready' Program to Canada to Advance AI-Driven Commerce