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Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller used a September 29 speech at Sibos 2026 to discuss how AI could affect cross-border payments and purchases made by AI agents. He described possible efficiency and security benefits while warning that autonomous shopping will require stronger trust mechanisms and safeguards; the pace and scale of adoption remain uncertain.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller said artificial intelligence could help improve cross-border payment screening and routing, while raising new questions about security and consumer control as AI agents begin making purchases. In a September 29 speech at Sibos 2026, he described agentic commerce as an early-stage development that could reshape payments if adoption grows.
Waller said financial firms already use machine learning to combat payment fraud and large language models for tasks such as reconciliation. He pointed to research indicating that large language models can reduce false-positive alerts in sanctions screening and anti-money-laundering systems. In his account, fewer mistaken alerts could let investigators focus on higher-risk cases and reduce delays for legitimate transfers. He expects these models to augment faster anomaly detection tools, rather than replace them.
He also described possible AI applications in cross-border payment routing, foreign-exchange conversion and liquidity management. Agents given suitable data and criteria could help weigh cost, speed and reliability when selecting routes or deciding when to convert currencies. Waller presented these as potential uses, not as results already achieved across payment systems.
Waller distinguished between agent-assisted commerce, where a person uses AI to search but makes the purchase and payment, and agent-delegated commerce, where a person authorizes an agent to shop and pay within set limits. He said consumer-to-business transactions are expected to be the first wave, with assisted use preceding more autonomous purchases. Delegated shopping, such as an agent using a pre-funded virtual card to buy groceries based on past purchases, brings greater risk of unintended transactions and needs more extensive safeguards.
Safeguards for Autonomous Purchases
The shift from AI recommending a product to AI completing a purchase changes who acts at the payment stage. Consumers and merchants will need clear ways to define an agent’s authority, limit spending and address mistaken or unauthorized transactions. Waller said the delegated model requires stronger trust mechanisms and guardrails, but the speech excerpt does not specify a particular technical or regulatory framework.
For payment providers, AI may also offer ways to improve screening and route selection, but increased reliance on connected systems creates security exposure. Waller warned that a successful attack on highly interconnected payment infrastructure could disrupt international commerce. He said defenders face an uneven challenge: attackers may need to exploit one vulnerability, while operators must protect a broad attack surface.
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From Payment Tools to Agents
Waller’s speech followed a Federal Reserve industry roundtable on agentic commerce held earlier in the summer. He said participants broadly viewed the market as being in an early phase, even as they saw potential for it to change commerce and payments if use expands.
The speech places agentic commerce alongside longer-running payment uses of AI, including fraud detection and reconciliation. It also addresses cross-border payments, where transactions can pass through multiple jurisdictions and involve currency conversion, liquidity decisions and screening for illicit finance. Waller discussed AI’s possible contribution to those processes while acknowledging that AI can also increase the sophistication and volume of cyber threats.
“I expect LLMs to augment, rather than replace, faster, more traditional anomaly detection methods.”
— Christopher J. Waller, Federal Reserve governor
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Adoption and Controls Remain Open
Waller did not say how quickly agentic commerce will spread, which model will dominate, or what standards will govern an agent’s authority to spend. The speech excerpt also does not identify specific safeguards, liability rules or consumer protections that providers will adopt. The research he referenced on screening was not quantified in the supplied material, so its scale and operating conditions are unclear.
It also remains uncertain how widely AI tools will improve cross-border routing or cybersecurity in live payment systems. Waller described potential benefits and risks, not measured industry-wide outcomes.
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Payment Firms Build Trust
Waller’s speech points to trust and control mechanisms as a key requirement for more autonomous purchasing. Payment firms, merchants and AI providers will need to determine how consumers grant authority, set spending boundaries and review agent activity as these services develop. No implementation timetable or next formal milestone was specified in the speech excerpt.
For cross-border payments, the next developments to watch include whether providers put AI-assisted screening and routing into broader use, and how they test those systems against fraud and cyber threats. Waller urged the industry to proceed deliberately as it applies AI to payment infrastructure.
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Key Questions
What did Christopher Waller say about AI and payments?
At Sibos 2026, Waller discussed possible uses of AI in cross-border screening, payment routing, foreign-exchange conversion and commerce conducted by AI agents. He also raised cybersecurity and consumer-control concerns.
What is agentic commerce?
It is the use of AI agents to help make or complete e-commerce purchases. In an assisted model, the consumer makes the purchase and pays; in a delegated model, the consumer authorizes an agent to shop and pay within specified limits.
How could AI affect cross-border payments?
Waller said AI could help reduce false-positive alerts in sanctions and anti-money-laundering screening and could help assess routing, currency conversion and liquidity choices. These were described as potential benefits, not established results across the industry.
What risks did Waller identify?
He warned that AI could increase the volume and sophistication of cyberattacks and that an attack on interconnected payment infrastructure could disrupt international commerce. Delegated shopping also creates a risk of unintended purchases.
Source: primary
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