Thredd, the AI-first issuer processing platform, today announced it has joined the Visa Agentic Ready programme, enabling issuers across Europe to participate in agent-initiated payments without rebuilding their payments infrastructure. Consumer payments platform Zilch will be among the first issuers on the platform to enable agent-initiated payments for its cardholders.
As a processor and enabler, Thredd sits at the trust layer of the payments ecosystem. By joining the programme, Thredd is ready to support Visa and its clients as the market moves into agentic commerce.
Agentic commerce introduces a new type of payment initiator: An AI agent acting on a cardholder's behalf. The core payments principles do not change. Cardholder permission, issuer approval, authentication and fraud monitoring all still apply. What changes is how trust is established and enforced at the point an agent transacts.
Taking a Zilch customer as an example, a cardholder might ask an AI agent to find a product within a set budget. The agent returns a recommendation, and with a single confirmation the cardholder instructs it to complete the purchase using their Zilch card. A Visa Payment Passkey confirms the cardholder's intent through biometric authentication, and the agent initiates the purchase with the merchant on the cardholder's behalf.
“Agentic commerce represents a fundamental shift in how payments will work, and getting the infrastructure right from the outset is critical,” said Philip Belamant, CEO at Zilch. “By partnering with Thredd and joining Visa’s Agentic Ready programme, we’re ensuring that as AI agents become a natural part of how our customers shop and spend, the trust, security and control that defines the Zilch experience remains intact. Ultimately, this is about giving customers more control over how they spend, not less, and that sits at the heart of everything Zilch is building."
Agent network readiness, built on existing infrastructure
Thredd's approach extends capabilities issuers already rely on, rather than asking them to start from scratch. The foundation for day-one network enablement is in place today:
- Tokenisation: Scheme tokenisation through Visa Token Service (VTS), so an agent only ever sees a token, never the underlying credential
- Device binding: Linking tokens to trusted devices
- Visa Payment passkeys: Secure biometric authentication, allowing a cardholder to authorise a transaction completed on their behalf
Building on this foundation, Thredd is developing agent-specific capabilities that recognise how agentic transactions differ from human ones:
- Agent tokenisation: Specialised tokens scoped to agents, with the permissions and controls an agent transaction requires
- Agent fraud monitoring: Transaction rules built for agent behaviour, addressing patterns that traditional models were not designed to catch, such as execution drift and abnormal velocity
This builds directly on Thredd's existing tokenisation capability and its fraud transaction monitoring solution, both already operating at scale across the platform.
A route to readiness for any issuer
By enabling Thredd services, issuers can become agentic-ready quickly, without rebuilding their payments infrastructure.
"Every major shift in payments requires a trusted layer that can turn ecosystem complexity into scalable capability. Agentic commerce is no different. As AI agents become a new participant in the payments journey, issuers need a way to embrace innovation without compromising security, customer control or speed to market,” said Jim McCarthy, CEO of Thredd. “Through our participation in the Visa Agentic Ready programme, Thredd is providing that bridge, enabling issuers across Europe to become agent-ready through the platform they already trust. Together with Visa, we’re helping define how this new era of commerce can scale safely, securely and in the best interests of cardholders.”
Thredd looks forward to supporting Visa, Zilch and issuers across Europe as they move into agentic commerce.
About Zilch
Zilch is an intelligent payments platform, designed to save customers time and money. Our all-in-one solution works like a smarter alternative to traditional cards, combining debit, credit, instalments, earned wage access, credit building, deals and rewards to optimise cashflow and maximise the value of every pound spent. Over 6 million customers have saved more than £750 million in fees and interest. Founded in 2019, Zilch drives more than £2.5 billion to its partner merchants annually. Learn more at www.zilch.com.
About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, 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.com.
About Thredd
Thredd is the trusted, AI-first, cloud-enabled issuer processing platform powering the next generation of global payments. Through a single API, unified platform, Thredd delivers debit, credit, digital wallet and ledger capabilities to over 100 fintech, digital banks and embedded finance providers, across 50+ countries, processing billions of transactions annually. With a global operating footprint, local expertise, and AI integrated into every layer of its platform, Thredd has been purpose-built for speed, scale and modern issuance models, setting the standard for market entry, client experience, security, regulatory rigour and operational resilience. Learn more at www.thredd.ai
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