China's payment clearing industry has taken a significant regulatory step forward with the release of a new self-regulatory pact aimed at governing the rapidly evolving field of AI-powered agent payments. On August 24, the China Clearing and Payment Association officially issued the "Self-Regulatory Convention on Intelligent Agent Payment Applications," introducing a forward-looking requirement for its member institutions. Under this new framework, members are urged to move beyond traditional "Know Your Customer" (KYC) protocols and explore the establishment of a "Know Your Agent" (KYA) mechanism, designed specifically to oversee the behaviour of AI agents in payment ecosystems.
The convention places a strong emphasis on rigorous user verification, mandating that member institutions strengthen the confirmation of user payment intentions and employ effective measures to strictly validate user identity and transaction intent. A central goal is to prevent unauthorised payment actions, ensuring that all payment transactions are complete, authentic, and fully traceable. A spokesperson for the association explained that the pact is designed to promote the orderly integration of artificial intelligence with the payment and clearing industry, guiding the safe, compliant, and sustainable development of intelligent agent payment applications.
Industry experts view this development as a crucial step in the evolution of payment systems. One specialist noted that agent-based payment represents a natural progression for AI, which currently handles information flows but is increasingly poised to manage capital flows. The convention was developed under the guidance of the People's Bank of China, with the association collaborating closely with its member institutions. The regulator's role underscores the national priority on ensuring that AI deployment in financial services remains secure and well-governed, aligning with broader policy objectives.
The association highlighted several key motivations behind the new rules, including the need to implement national policy and regulatory requirements, to foster industry consensus through flexible self-governance, and to establish clear principles for members to follow. By strengthening risk awareness and ensuring security, the pact aims to support innovation while maintaining industry standards. Experts emphasise that establishing industry-wide standards at the mechanism level is vital, with one noting that if the right frameworks, technical support, and risk controls are in place, the realisation of agent payments will follow naturally.
Another critical aspect raised by experts is the need to address two fundamental issues: trust and responsibility. The convention stipulates that any agent payment application involving core payment business functions—such as account management, transaction processing, and fund settlement—must be conducted by licensed institutions, including banking financial institutions, non-bank payment institutions, and clearing houses. Members are required to adhere to the principle of "whoever provides the payment service is responsible," taking primary responsibility for the security of user accounts, transactions, funds, and information.
In terms of agent management, the convention requires members to implement tiered classification of agents that connect to the payment chain, based on high, medium, and low risk levels. Key focus areas include the agent's model origin, identity markers, permission boundaries, interface calls, and behavioural characteristics, with strict measures to prevent malicious agents from accessing payment business scenarios. On authorisation, members must execute payment instructions based on user consent, strictly preventing unauthorised payments and safeguarding the integrity and traceability of transactions. The association stressed that clear authorisation boundaries and formal agreements with users are essential, along with robust verification of user identity and transaction intent.
Security management is another pillar of the new pact, with members required to establish sound fund safety mechanisms, using tools like transaction limits to prevent agents from overdrawing or transferring user funds without permission. The convention also encourages the establishment of trusted evidence-storage mechanisms at key transaction nodes, creating verifiable, traceable, and tamper-proof evidence chains for user authorisation, model decisions, payment instructions, and risk control processes. This is intended to provide reliable verification for dispute resolution and responsibility determination.
To mitigate risks, the convention mandates a tiered management framework and strengthens technical security across algorithm and model security, network security, data security, and technology ethics. Members must also enhance business controls to comply with anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and anti-fraud requirements. The association further urged members to uphold open cooperation and maintain a fair, open, and healthy ecosystem, prohibiting practices such as exclusive partnerships, forced bundling, or predatory pricing that could restrict user choice or disrupt market order.
The move comes in response to requests from several member institutions, which had indicated that while they had begun exploring agent payment practices, they lacked unified industry standards and guidelines. Notably, JD.com has recently disclosed an internal autonomous payment protocol for agents, drawing inspiration from the L0 to L5 levels of autonomous driving. This protocol proposes a machine autonomy classification system, ranging from L0 manual payment to L5 fully autonomous payment, with a particular focus on L3 supervised autonomy and L4 high-level autonomy.
Looking ahead, the association outlined three potential stages of development: agent-assisted payment, autonomous payment under preset conditions, and autonomous payment under general conditions. Members are encouraged to adopt an application-oriented, scenario-driven approach, cautiously exploring agent-initiated payment transactions. Experts predict that lightweight, standardised, low-risk, and high-frequency scenarios—such as purchasing movie tickets—will be the first to embrace agent payments. However, they stress that manual payment methods will continue to coexist with agent-based systems, and predicting the future market share of agent payments remains difficult at this stage.
Finally, the association emphasised that technological applications must always serve user protection, financial stability, and social welfare, guarding against technology abuse, algorithmic discrimination, and excessive consumption inducement. Members should also account for varying levels of digital literacy among different groups, preserving necessary manual services and alternative payment channels to prevent the widening of the digital divide. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.