UnionPay has officially released the Agentic Payment Open Protocol (APOP) framework, its solution for agent-based payments, which aims to establish a unified trust mechanism and interaction paradigm.
The framework aims to enable any compatible agent, merchant, financial institution, and technology platform to integrate on a plug-and-play basis, and to easily and securely participate in the complex processes of agentic payments by connecting players in the agentic payment ecosystem through trusted routing.
Four critical capabilities
The APOP framework operates on four critical capabilities that serve as the foundation for the trust mechanism and interaction model for agentic payments.
- It supports the lifecycle management of agent identities, including registration, information updates, and deregistration.
- By offering end-to-end intent management covering generation, registration, and verification, the APOP framework establishes a trust mechanism centred on user intent.
- It provides streamlined user identity management. The framework enables single sign-on (SSO) across participants, such as agents, merchants, and financial institutions, while supporting credential sharing and safeguarding privacy and security.
- It offers a comprehensive set of payment authorisation services, including activation authentication for agentic payments, payment debiting, and user consent verification.
Advancing an open and secure agentic payment ecosystem
The framework also aims to develop industry-wide standards and create inclusive guidelines to enable interoperability across institutions, platforms, and use cases in and outside China's mainland.
Moreover, the framework features four core principles, including:
- Compliance and controllability
- Security as a priority
- Trust
- Broad compatibility
According to Dong Junfeng, chairman of China UnionPay, the company will continue to uphold its vision of "Trusted Ties, Shared Success" and work closely with industry partners to actively embrace the transformative opportunities AI brings.
