Ballerine has launched a governance platform aimed at tackling the challenges of risk, compliance, and oversight in agent-driven commerce.

This platform is tailored for payment service providers (PSPs) and payment facilitators (PayFacs), who support merchants increasingly working with artificial intelligence (AI) agents during transactions.

As AI agents become more integral to the product discovery, selection, and transaction execution phases, merchants need to adhere to new operational standards. These include maintaining accurate inventory data, clear commercial policies, and reliable fulfillment processes. PSPs face questions regarding merchant accountability, dispute resolution, and policy enforcement as a result of this shift.

Governance and oversight for agent-driven transactions

Ballerine states that the new platform enables PSPs to manage agentic commerce readiness across their entire merchant network without having to create custom compliance or monitoring processes for each business. The company suggests integrating the platform into existing services, presenting it as an additional governance and operational preparedness service for merchants.

According to Ballerine, agent-driven commerce represents a significant structural change rather than a minor update in online payments. They assert that PSPs will play a more crucial role in ensuring merchants stay aligned with evolving technical and policy requirements while maintaining oversight over emerging transaction models.

The platform evaluates merchant eligibility, enforces set standards, and continuously monitors inventory and behavioral data. Ballerine claims that transactions initiated or mediated by AI agents generate audit-ready documentation intended to enhance transparency and clarify responsibility in the event of disputes or policy breaches. The system is designed to be agent-agnostic and operate across various commerce and AI environments.

Ballerine also emphasizes its broader risk and compliance infrastructure, which integrates fraud data, business information, and regulatory workflows into a unified operational framework. The company’s merchant monitoring tools are certified under Mastercard’s Merchant Monitoring Service Provider programme, potentially reducing certain fee assessments for qualifying acquirers under specific conditions.