Revolut and Visa test an AI-initiated payment in France
Revolut and Visa completed a controlled French trial in which an AI agent initiated a real purchase and carried it to payment. Cleverbridge was the merchant and Visa Payment Passkey provided biometric authentication, while tokenisation, identity controls and fraud monitoring stayed within existing payment infrastructure. The companies describe it as a test preserving customer authorisation, not a generally available product.
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Visa's agent initiates a real purchase at Cleverbridge
A French-issued Revolut card was used for a real transaction within Visa's Agentic Ready programme. Visa's test agent, My Agent, acted with the customer's authorisation, initiated a purchase at Cleverbridge and carried it to payment. Maddyness and Clubic report the same controlled transaction: Cleverbridge was the merchant, Revolut supplied the card and Visa operated the payment infrastructure. Although the companies describe it as a first in France, the trial is not a generally available product.[1], [2]
Biometric authentication stays within existing payment controls
Visa Payment Passkey supplied biometric authentication for the payment. Clubic reports that tokenisation and agent identification remained within Visa's payment controls, while Maddyness says card security, identity checks and real-time fraud monitoring stayed inside the existing infrastructure. The agent handled the purchase flow without removing customer consent or issuer control. The trial tested whether autonomous software could operate on today's card rails while retaining those boundaries.[1], [2]
The trial follows Revolut's French licence by one month
Revolut received its French banking licence in August 2026, one month before the payment trial. Maddyness also notes that Santander completed Europe's first end-to-end agent payment with Mastercard in March 2026. The claim attached to the new transaction is therefore limited to the companies' description of a first in France. Revolut and Visa announced no access date or rollout schedule; the reported development consists of one controlled real-world transaction.[1], [2]
