Global: Visa unveils threat intelligence platform, advances AI-powered commerce in Europe

Visa has launched a new Threat Intelligence Platform for financial institutions while also expanding its push into agentic commerce, successfully facilitating live AI-driven transactions across Europe.

The payments giant said it blocks nearly 90 million cyberattacks and 11 million phishing emails every month across more than 200 countries. It is now extending the same cyber intelligence capabilities used within its global network to banking clients through the newly launched Visa Threat Intelligence Platform.

Built specifically for the financial services sector, the platform is designed to help security, fraud, and risk management teams cut through fragmented data and focus on intelligence directly linked to payments-related threats.

The platform delivers advanced threat intelligence through malware indicators, vulnerability and exploit monitoring, brand impersonation detection, employee-targeted threat monitoring, and visibility into compromised payment credentials circulating on the dark web.

According to Mandy Lamb, Head of Value-Added Services at Visa Europe, the platform is intended to help financial institutions identify threats earlier and improve response accuracy before incidents escalate into fraud or financial losses.

“With the Visa Threat Intelligence Platform, we are enabling financial institutions to detect risks earlier and respond more precisely before threats translate into fraud or financial damage,” Lamb said.

She added that combining cybersecurity intelligence with payment data would help institutions better protect customers, reduce fraud exposure, and strengthen trust in digital payments.

Beyond cybersecurity, Visa is also accelerating its investments in AI-driven commerce. The company disclosed that it has partnered with more than 30 card issuers across Europe—including Barclays, BBVA, HSBC, Klarna, and Revolut—to execute live agentic commerce transactions, allowing AI agents to make purchases on behalf of cardholders.

The transactions were enabled through Visa Intelligent Commerce, a framework that allows AI agents to browse products, select items, and initiate purchases on merchant platforms while operating within user-defined permissions and spending parameters.

Visa said the system securely connects banks, merchants, and AI systems through its payments network, ensuring agent-driven transactions remain authenticated, secure, and compliant with European regulatory standards.

Merchant participation is supported by Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol and Agent Directory, which help businesses verify and securely interact with authorised AI agents.

On the issuer side, Visa Payment Passkeys provide an additional layer of authentication, ensuring AI-initiated purchases meet compliance and security requirements.

Speaking on the development, Mathieu Altwegg, Head of Product and Solutions at Visa Europe, said AI-powered purchasing is moving rapidly from experimentation to practical use.

“We are now seeing AI agents complete purchases directly with independent merchants on behalf of consumers,” Altwegg said.

He noted that the next phase will focus on scaling agentic commerce by bringing together standards, infrastructure, ecosystem partners, and trusted verification mechanisms from the outset.

The twin developments underscore Visa’s broader strategy to strengthen both cybersecurity and next-generation payment experiences as artificial intelligence increasingly reshapes global commerce.