Consumers kept their cards busy last quarter, and the latest quarterly earnings results from payment networks indicated a widening pursuit of transactions that begin with an unpaid invoice, a stablecoin balance or instructions to an artificial intelligence agent.
Their earnings calls showed continued spending growth alongside different stages of deployment for these new services. Management described live business payment applications, early agentic purchases and stablecoin products connecting digital balances with bank accounts. They also identified unfinished work, particularly in preparing merchants and processors for purchases initiated by software.
1. Consumer Spending Holds Up With Affluent Customers Ahead
Visa’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results, released Oct. 27, showed credit volume in the United States growing 11% and debit 9%, with continued demand across discretionary and nondiscretionary categories.
“We did not see signs of the lower-spend consumer weakening in our volumes,” Visa Chief Financial Officer Chris Suh said during the company’s Oct. 27 earnings call.
Visa’s highest spending band continued to grow fastest, according to management commentary.
Mastercard provided an additional snapshot of affluent demand in its third-quarter earnings results, released Thursday (Oct. 29). Spending in its affluent portfolios grew twice as fast as overall credit. Its U.S. credit volume rose 10%, while debit grew 1%, including the impact of the Capital One debit migration. Outside the U.S., debit outpaced credit.
American Express said while sharing its third-quarter earnings results Oct. 23 that U.S. consumer spending grew 9.4%, supported by its premium customer base. Airline and restaurant spending remained strong.
Amex’s lending results also showed stable repayment performance. Management said its delinquency rate had remained at either 1.2% or 1.3% for 15 consecutive quarters. Its premium customer concentration is relevant when assessing how broadly that performance describes the credit market.
2. Agentic Payments Require More Than Issuing a Token
Tokenization already supports online payment activity. Visa said more than 60% of its eCommerce transactions are tokenized. The next implementation task involves connecting those credentials with an authorized agent and the buyer’s instructions.
“First, we want to make sure that there’s an identifiable user behind every agent,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said.
He also described agent registration, identification and purchase instructions, followed by established dispute rules and processes.
Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach identified merchant preparation as a separate constraint.
“If everybody uses Agent Pay, that doesn’t mean that every merchant is still discoverable,” he said.
Product catalogs must be accessible within agentic shopping experiences, and processors must support the payment connections. Mastercard’s Agent Connect addresses discovery, while Agent Pay includes tokenized payment capabilities.
Miebach also described processor-generated, one-time virtual card numbers inserted into agentic transactions as a temporary bridge. Mastercard wouldn’t support that intermediary approach as a long-term solution, he said, citing consumer choice, rewards and controls.
Both Visa and Mastercard acknowledged that agentic transaction volumes remain small.
3. Stablecoins Reach Account and Settlement Services
The stablecoin discussion that peppered earnings calls included specific services for funding payments, holding balances and delivering money into bank accounts.
Visa said its stablecoin settlement run rate exceeded $25 billion in annualized volume. Its Visa Direct stablecoin prefunding and cross-border money movement service has entered commercial production, with Inyo Global as its first live partner.
“We are stablecoin-agnostic,” McInerney said. “We are blockchain-agnostic.”
The prefunding offering began with USDC, and additional stablecoins are planned.
Mastercard’s earnings discussion described its first combined product with BVNK following the acquisition’s August closing. The Global Money Platform supports accounts for holding, converting, sending and receiving fiat currencies and stablecoins.
Mastercard Move integration enables businesses to pay stablecoin balances into recipients’ local bank accounts. Nuvei and Marqeta are among the first customers expected to integrate.
Management linked the offering to banks’ concern about deposits moving to competitors offering stablecoin accounts. The product gives institutions another account service to offer, although its introduction doesn’t establish customer adoption or deposit retention.
4. B2B Payments Make Inroads Into Accounts Payable Workflows
Commercial payment examples showed networks connecting credentials with software used to process invoices and pay suppliers.
“We focus on bringing more virtual cards to market and embed them directly into tools businesses already use,” Miebach said.
Mastercard cited Tungsten Automation’s addition of virtual card technology to automated accounts payable offerings. Enterprise customers will generate virtual cards within those workflows.
Visa described deployments at several stages. Ramp’s agentic bill payment application is generally available. BILL’s payment agent is piloting Visa Intelligent Commerce to pay invoices, while Billtrust’s supplier portal will identify the agent and accept payment. Airwallex is testing enabled credentials.
The supplier portal example adds a receiving-side requirement to automation, as the seller must recognize the agent and accept its payment.
Visa’s quarterly commercial payments volume grew 13% in constant dollars, faster than overall payments volume. Amex’s commercial spending increased 3%, or 5% excluding co-brand portfolio exits, with corporate cards and integrated expense management among its initiatives.
5. Security Services Extend Beyond Payment Authorization
New payment flows are expanding the services that networks provide to banks and businesses.
Visa said Wells Fargo has enabled Visa Direct for cross-border payroll, accounts payable and disbursements. More than 40 clients used over five Visa Direct use cases apiece during the fiscal year.
Security work also covers accounts and systems before a payment reaches authorization. Visa discussed behavioral fraud detection through its pending BioCatch acquisition, alongside threat intelligence and transaction risk tools.
Mastercard cited expanded fraud and identity relationships with Standard Bank, Monzo and Starling Bank. Its digital risk protection product, which identifies vulnerabilities in organizations’ digital environments, served nearly 800 enterprise customers after several months in market.
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