Mastercard Shifts to Multi-Rail Network and Agentic Commerce

Mastercard President and Chief Technology Officer Ed McLaughlin detailed the company's strategic evolution from a traditional card network to a general-purpose multi-rail payment network during Citi’s 15th Annual FinTech Conference on November 9, 2026. McLaughlin reported that non-card-based transactions now account for over 72% of the company's total volume.

The company is expanding into agentic commerce, where AI agents manage purchasing, and machine-to-machine payments. To support this shift and the integration of digital assets, Mastercard acquired the crypto-native firm BVNK. To counter AI-powered cyber threats and nation-state actors, the company acquired Recorded Future to enhance threat intelligence and fraud scoring.

Internal operations have also shifted toward AI integration, with 100% of Mastercard developers now using AI assistance to increase throughput and reduce defects. McLaughlin emphasized that the company is prioritizing scale, speed, and resilience, citing successful network stability in Africa during undersea cable disruptions and the implementation of end-to-end transaction authorization in Europe.