Nuvei Completes First-Party In-Agent Payment with Visa; Unveils Merchant-Led Agentic Payments Strategy

• First live in-agent purchase authorized across multiple issuers on Visa rails
• Nuvei Agentic delivers what merchants asked for: first-party agent capabilities today, third-party agents when the market demands

MONTREAL, July 2, 2026 /CNW/ -- Nuvei, the global fintech building the infrastructure for every payment, everywhere, today completed a live agentic-commerce proof of concept with Visa, Arvato Systems, and fashion brand Kings and Priests. In the transaction, a merchant's AI agent initiated a product purchase on a shopper's behalf and paid inside the agent, with no hand-off to a separate payment flow. Multiple issuers across Europe took part completing agentic payments settled on live Visa rails using a tokenized Visa credential within Visa Intelligent Commerce. These were governed by shopper-set guardrails, including spend caps and approved categories.

The proof of concept moves agentic commerce beyond discovery by keeping the purchase, authorization, and payment inside the first-party agent. It also establishes a proof point for Nuvei Agentic: a protocol-agnostic execution layer any AI agent can call to pay.

"Agentic commerce is the next evolution of digital commerce, with AI not just finding products but initiating purchases," said Phil Fayer, Chair and CEO of Nuvei. "This proof of concept starts inside a merchant's own experience and points to where payments are heading: a layer that lets any agent, on any protocol, make a payment."

The strategy reflects what merchants are asking for. At Nuvei's Global Customer Advisory Board this week, merchants identified first-party agentic capabilities as the immediate priority, with the same controls extending to public, third-party agents as the market develops.

With the proof of concept complete, Nuvei, Visa, and the participating issuing partners are now working to scale these capabilities toward production.

Nuvei brings together an Agentic Payment Ecosystem

The proof of concept brought together merchant technology provider Arvato Systems, fashion brand Kings and Priests, and issuing partners across Europe, including Alpha Bank, Piraeus Bank, Bank Leumi, CAL, MAX, and Bank of Cyprus.

"Through Visa Agentic Ready, we are extending existing capabilities -- including tokenization and network-level controls -- to enable agent-initiated payments in a trusted and consistent way," commented Mathieu Altwegg, Head of Product & Solutions, Visa Europe. "This proof of concept shows how those foundations can support new experiences today, with authentication continuing to evolve as the model scales."

"This proof of concept shows how the payments ecosystem can enable AI-driven purchasing while preserving trust, control, and transparency," said Carsten Bruning, Vice President Digital Commerce at Arvato Systems. "With Visa and Nuvei, we validated interoperability across the flow and proved that payment can complete inside the agent rather than on the merchant site."

"For Kings and Priests, this was a firsthand look at how agentic commerce can open new channels for digital retail," said Ralph Hürlemann, Founder of Kings and Priests. "An AI agent initiating a purchase on a consumer's behalf can reshape how customers discover and buy online."

Beyond the Proof of Concept: Building the Execution Layer for Agentic Commerce

Agentic commerce is projected to drive $1 trillion in global transaction volume by 2030 and $3–5 trillion by 2035 (McKinsey). As the payment experience moves into the agent, this proof of concept marks a first step in Nuvei Agentic Payments and extends Nuvei's Every Payment, Everywhere strategy.

Two building blocks form that interface. A Protocol Compatibility Layer lets merchants integrate once and accept payments from the standards an agent uses -- ACP, AP2, or MCP -- routed across networks, with Nuvei intending to certify against both Visa Intelligent Commerce and Mastercard Agent Pay. Know Your Agent adds identity and governance by registering and credentialing agents, validating the consumer's mandate, scoring agent reputation, and keeping actions auditable. Together, they give merchants one interface through Nuvei's existing platform and ISV integrations, without re-engineering their payment experience.

Nuvei is targeting initial availability in the second half of 2026, covering protocol compatibility, the KYA registry and agent risk scoring, network certifications, and a developer sandbox -- all on the Level 1 PCI-certified infrastructure and risk and fraud tooling Nuvei already runs at scale.

"Agentic commerce is a platform problem, not a feature," Fayer added. "Merchants need one place that connects them to every agent, protocol, and network while keeping them in control. The hard part isn't the transaction; it's carrying a verifiable mandate, managing real-world agent risk, and clearing across any rail. We are now building it into the infrastructure we already run for thousands of merchants."

Read the executive viewpoint from Phil Fayer.

About Nuvei

Nuvei is the global fintech building the infrastructure for every payment, everywhere. Its modular, flexible, and scalable technology enables leading companies to accept next-generation payments, offer all payout options, and benefit from banking, risk, and fraud management services. Connecting businesses to their customers in more than 200 markets, with local acquiring in 53 markets, 150 currencies, and over 720 alternative payment methods, Nuvei provides the technology and insights for customers and partners to succeed locally and globally through one integration.

For more information on our vision for agentic commerce, visit our website.  

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SOURCE Nuvei