Cards, Pay by Bank and the rise of multi-rail payments

Global payment data shows card transactions reached 776 billion in 2024 and are forecast to rise to 1.1 trillion by 2029. Account-to-account (A2A) volumes are projected to increase from 60 billion in 2024 to about 185 billion by 2029. The figures indicate growing use of multiple payment rails in consumer commerce.

Card credentials are being reworked as tokenised, programmable credentials. Tokens are being embedded in digital wallets and used across embedded checkout, in-app payments and agent-initiated transactions. Those tokens limit exposure to raw card data and allow issuers and merchants to apply feature controls and routing rules to individual credentials.

Pay by Bank offerings are expanding from niche checkout options in Europe to wider acceptance. That rail routes payments directly from consumer accounts and bypasses card networks, which changes fee flows and can alter merchant costs and issuer revenues.

Banks, card issuers and acquirers face technical and operational work to support multiple rails. Firms must build operating models that can route transactions across rails, manage tokenisation services and apply real-time decisioning for approvals, routing and fraud controls. Organisations that process both card and A2A flows need integration work to align settlement timing, reconciliation and reporting across different network rules.

Agentic commerce, where a third party initiates a payment on a consumer’s behalf, is appearing in market initiatives such as Visa TAP, Mastercard Agent Pay and Google AP2. Payments professionals note agent-initiated transactions can increase convenience and change who controls payment initiation, and they require clear standards for authentication, consent and dispute handling to address fraud liability and consumer rights.

Tokenisation and wallet credentials affect the economics of acceptance. Tokens can reduce merchant and issuer exposure to card data and support more flexible routing and issuer-driven features. Pay by Bank routes can reduce reliance on card networks and their interchange structures, which affects how fees are distributed among merchants, acquirers and issuers.

Regulatory changes, reimbursement rules and merchant economics are affecting issuer and acquirer profit and loss. Adjustments to interchange regulation, consumer protection rules and reimbursement frameworks influence which parties absorb chargeback and fraud costs. Acquirers and issuers are modifying pricing, risk models and operational controls to reflect a larger mix of rails and shifting liability patterns.

A webinar in 2026 will address these topics and how cards, Pay by Bank and agent-initiated payments can operate within a single payments architecture. Participants include Dean Wallace, director of consumer payments modernization at ACI Worldwide, and moderator Jane Cooper. The event will discuss technical, operational and commercial implications for banks and payment providers.