When an AI agent pays on someone’s behalf, responsibility should follow the mandate that person agreed in advance, says Dmytro Rukin , CEO of LaFinteca . The user answers for the limits they set, the agent provider for keeping the agent inside them, and the merchant and payment provider for the checks only they can run.

The payment already works. On 25 March 2026 a global card network announced live agentic payments across Latin America and the Caribbean with 17 financial institutions, all authorised with cardholder consent, according to its own release. The open question is who answers for a payment no human pressed. The FCA raised it in its Payments Regulatory Priorities report of 25 March 2026, and HM Treasury’s consultation of 14 July 2026 asks whether consent and liability rules should adapt.

What counts as consent when a machine pays?

Rukin’s answer is permission agreed before the agent acts, written as four limits.…