SRC (Secure Remote Commerce) Announces New Guest Checkout Standard for the AI Agent Era

Four Major Card Networks Establish New AI Agent Payment Standards

SRC Gives Agentic Commerce a New Guest Checkout Playbook

As commerce becomes increasingly agent-driven, guest checkout is poised for a resurgence, with EMV SRC 1.5 and passkey authentication.

EMVCo, responsible for global payment standardization, along with core members Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover, have announced a new guest checkout experience enabling autonomous payments by AI agents. This marks a major turning point in payment infrastructure for the "agentic commerce" era expected to accelerate in 2026.

Background: Why Guest Checkout Is Getting Renewed Attention

The Rise of Agentic Commerce

Agentic commerce is a new purchasing model where AI agents autonomously handle product search, comparison, purchase decisions, and payments on behalf of consumers. Both Visa and Mastercard announced full-scale entry into this space in late 2025, making 2026 the "year of agent payments."

Visa co-developed the Trusted Agent Protocol with Cloudflare in October 2024, building a cryptographic signature-based AI agent authentication mechanism. Meanwhile, Mastercard announced the Agent Pay framework, completed US issuer rollout in November 2025, and plans pilot programs in Europe and Asia-Pacific in early 2026.

Challenges with Traditional Checkout

According to PYMNTS Intelligence research, 60% of mid-sized e-commerce businesses experience some UX issues at checkout. Furthermore, requiring account creation can reduce conversion rates by 25-30%, while offering guest checkout can improve conversion rates by up to 45%.

When AI agents handle payments, this challenge becomes even more critical. Since agents don't have accounts on individual e-commerce sites, guest checkout is the optimal solution for agent payments.

Deep Dive: EMV SRC 1.5 and Passkey Authentication Innovation

What is SRC (Secure Remote Commerce)?

SRC is an online payment standard specification established by EMVCo. It's marketed to consumers as "Click to Pay" and provides a unified checkout experience across multiple card brands.

Three Pillars of EMV SRC 1.5

The latest EMV SRC 1.5 enhances three capabilities:

Unlike proprietary wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.), SRC doesn't depend on specific devices or browsers. This is an extremely important characteristic when AI agents conduct transactions across various platforms.

Replacing traditional one-time passcodes (OTP), passkey authentication leverages biometric and device-level security. Visa Payment Passkey is FIDO-compliant, allowing consumers to approve payments using the same authentication methods they use to unlock their smartphones.

Instead of transmitting actual card information, tokenized credentials are used. Combined with strong authentication, card information remains fully protected even when AI agents execute payments.

How AI Agent Payments Work

In SRC-compatible systems, AI agents can complete payments through the following flow:

1. Authentication: Agent proves it's an authorized representative through cryptographic signatures
2. Card Selection: Automatically selects card based on consumer's preset preferences
3. Payment Completion: Single-flow checkout without direct consumer involvement

The key point is that payments can complete even without the consumer being present. For example, for an instruction like "Buy XX at the best price this week," an AI agent can autonomously execute the purchase at the optimal timing.

Impact and Applications for E-commerce Businesses

Benefits of Early Adoption

Guest checkout is "the lowest-friction payment path." By eliminating account creation barriers, you can achieve checkout optimized for both human customers and AI agents.

In an era where AI agents handle purchasing, e-commerce sites that are "easy to buy from" for agents will be chosen. SRC compatibility creates opportunities to acquire new customers via AI agents.

By adopting EMV-compliant standard specifications, you can avoid risks of proprietary implementations while leveraging security infrastructure from each card brand.

Implementation Action Plan

Incentives for Banks and Card Companies

SRC offers significant benefits for issuers as well. They can maintain control over card registration, authentication, and risk management without losing customers to Big Tech platform wallets. This is the background driving accelerated SRC adoption across the card industry.

Summary: Payment Standards for the Agent Era Launch

The evolution of SRC and EMV SRC 1.5 isn't just a technical update. It's a fundamental restructuring of payment infrastructure for a future where AI agents routinely shop on our behalf.

As guest checkout repositions from "legacy system" to "agent era standard," e-commerce businesses are expected to start preparing now. Mastercard plans global rollout by mid-2026, and Visa has indicated commercial availability starting Q1 2026.

Now is the time to act. We recommend incorporating Click to Pay evaluation, passkey authentication preparation, and guest checkout optimization into your 2026 roadmap.