IDEMIA pairs passkeys with restricted-use tokens so card networks can let AI agents pay

IDEMIA Secure Transactions announced an Agentic Commerce solution on September 29, 2026, aimed at domestic payment schemes, regional networks, and private-label and co-branded card issuers that want their cards usable when an AI agent does the shopping. It builds on IDEMIA's existing Token Platform and FIDO2-certified authentication. The token platform releases a tokenized card credential only after the consumer's consent is verified, and that token can be restricted to a specific merchant, amount, purchase category or time period, so the agent can only buy within those limits even when the cardholder is not present. Passkeys handle cardholder authentication at enrollment and payment. The service also stores proof that the consumer authorized each agent-initiated purchase, meant to be producible in a dispute months later, even if the agent no longer exists. No launch customers or availability date were given.

Why it matters

The design choice worth copying is the split between who the user is and what the agent may do. Here the passkey proves the cardholder, and the token's restrictions define the agent's spending authority, so authenticating the human never hands an agent an open-ended credential. That is the same separation securing AI agent identities argues for outside payments: scoped, delegated authority tied to an agentic identity, not standing access.

It also fits the direction set by Google's AP2 and Mastercard's Verifiable Intent, which the FIDO Alliance is standardizing, and extends issuer-hosted passkey enrollment of the kind xMoney shipped for Mastercard. The open question is evidence: a consent record only helps in a dispute if networks and merchants agree on its format, and IDEMIA has not published one. Treat this as an architecture signal for smaller networks, not yet a deployable product.

Source: ID Tech via FIDO Alliance