Beijing, Aug.24 — Guided by the People’s Bank of China, the China Payment and Clearing Association has formally issued the Self‑Regulatory Convention on Intelligent‑Agent Payment Applications, China’s first industry‑wide self‑regulation document governing AI‑agent‑enabled payment services, effective immediately upon release.
As generative‑AI agents gain capability to initiate payment orders on users’ behalf, emerging risks such as unauthorized deductions, ambiguous accountability and poor transaction traceability have come into spotlight. Traditional financial compliance centered on KYC (Know‑Your‑Customer) only verifies human‑end‑users, lacking oversight for AI agents acting on their behalf.
The landmark breakthrough in this convention is the proposal to explore a new KYA (Know‑Your‑Agent) regime built on top of existing KYC identity verification. Under KYA rules, payment‑linked AI agents shall go through independent identity registration, qualification audit and permission management, making every AI‑triggered payment traceable back to its agent subject.
Key Provisions
1. Licensed‑institution‑only rule: Core payment‑related procedures including account management, transaction execution and settlement must be undertaken by licensed banks, payment providers or clearing bodies. Service providers bear primary liability for safety.
2. Tiered risk management for AI agents: Operators shall classify intelligent agents by risk level, enforce transaction caps and roll‑out the KYA verification mechanism.
3. Clear‑cut user authorization: Agent‑driven payments require explicit, revocable consent from end‑users to prevent over‑reaching charges by AI.
4. Full‑chain traceability: All payment instructions issued by AI agents must leave permanent audit trails for accountability.
5. Consumer protection and digital‑inclusion safeguards: Stricter risk controls are imposed for seniors and minors. Manual‑service alternatives shall be preserved to avoid digital divide.
Industry observers comment that the Convention upgrades China’s payment‑security paradigm from “verifying humans only (KYC)” to “verifying humans plus AI proxies (KYC+KYA)”. As a soft‑law self‑governance framework, it lays industry ground‑rules and paves the way for future formal national regulation of autonomous‑AI payment ecosystem.