British banking giant HSBC and Ant Digital Technologies have tested a system that allows AI agents to access digital services and make micropayments using tokenized bank deposits, with transactions settled in real time on a blockchain testnet. According to Cointelegraph, the trial combined HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service with Ant Digital’s Anvita Flow network and Jovay Testnet, a layer-2 blockchain testing environment. HSBC handled settlement functions and real-time risk checks, while Ant Digital’s network managed service access and payment coordination. The demonstration showed an AI agent selecting a digital service and completing a payment, with the companies describing the transfers as micropayments, typically defined as less than $2. The firms said the test was limited to technical verification and did not amount to a commercial launch or live customer product.

HSBC is one of several banks exploring how AI agents could initiate financial transactions on behalf of customers. In March, Spanish banking giant Santander completed an AI-agent-initiated payment using Mastercard’s Agent Pay infrastructure in a controlled test involving the bank’s live payment systems. Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum followed in May with a test of AI-agent-driven transactions on a blockchain mainnet, while customers were required to approve and sign each transaction. Spanish banking group CaixaBank also completed an AI-agent-initiated card transaction using Visa Intelligent Commerce and existing merchant payment systems. Not everyone agrees that established banks can easily adapt current infrastructure to AI-driven finance. In a May interview with Cointelegraph, Augustus Bank CEO Ferdinand Dabitz said traditional clearing banks rely on decades-old systems built for human operations rather than automated, around-the-clock transactions. Augustus is developing a US bank centered on stablecoins and AI-driven operations, arguing that purpose-built infrastructure could replace parts of traditional banking systems.