The Local Payments Council for Agentic Commerce has been set up to make sure local payment methods keep working when AI agents make purchases on behalf of users. Its founding members are PPRO, Poland's BLIK, Belgium's Bancontact, EPI, which runs Wero, and Greece's DIAS. The group will work on five topics: keeping a human responsible for authorisation, proving an agent is legitimate on non-card networks, letting users authorise agents, handling disputes and refunds, and identifying the merchant correctly.

What it means: So far most initiatives on purchases by AI agents have come from the big card networks and US tech companies. The presence of DIAS, which runs IRIS and the instant payment infrastructure in Greece, means Greek payment methods have a voice in shaping the rules. For a Greek online shop, the question is no longer just whether it accepts cards, but whether an agent shopping for a customer will be able to pay with IRIS or from a bank account, and who is liable if something goes wrong. The group's five topics are exactly where the gaps are: cards have established chargeback rules, while getting money back on account-to-account transfers is harder. If there are shared standards for agent identity and user approval, European local methods can compete with cards on cost. Merchants do not need to change anything today, but they should follow the specifications that emerge and ask their payment provider how it plans to support such transactions. For Greek fintechs there is room here for tools that record and check authorisations.

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