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

Industry data show global card transactions reached 776 billion in 2024 and are forecast to reach 1.1 trillion by 2029. Account-to-account (A2A) volumes rose to 60 billion in 2024 and are forecast to surpass 185 billion by 2029. These figures reflect a payments market in which card and A2A channels are expanding at the same time.

Cards are increasingly issued as tokenised credentials stored in digital wallets and embedded checkout systems. Tokenisation replaces raw card numbers with tokens used by wallets and merchant platforms at checkout, and it enables one-click purchases and merchant-initiated payments.

Pay by Bank, an A2A option, is scaling from a niche checkout method into a common part of payments in Europe and other markets. Agent-initiated payment models, marketed under names such as Visa TAP, Mastercard Agent Pay and Google AP2, allow third-party agents to initiate payments on behalf of customers, changing authorization and settlement mechanics.

The move of credentials into wallets and the rise of agent-initiated transactions affect where and how authentication takes place. Responsibility for authentication, liability allocation and dispute rights can shift among banks, card issuers, acquirers and platform operators. Changes in where fraud is detected and who bears chargeback exposure alter operational workflows and legal frameworks for consumer protections.

Regulation, reimbursement rules for disputed transactions and merchant acceptance costs influence issuer and acquirer revenue and expenses. Fee structures for real-time settlement and merchant economics change profit-and-loss lines across the payment chain.

Supporting multiple rails requires investment in routing logic, reconciliation systems and fraud detection tools. Banks, issuers and acquirers need unified, resilient operating models with embedded intelligence to select the most appropriate rail for each transaction based on cost, risk, consumer preference and regulatory constraints.

Transaction data show cards remain central to many consumer journeys while being redefined to work alongside A2A and agent-driven models. The payments environment now includes multiple technologies that require coordinated governance and technical integration.

A Finextra webinar, held in association with ACI Worldwide, will convene industry experts to discuss these trends. The session will feature Dean Wallace, director of consumer payments modernization at ACI Worldwide, and will be moderated by Finextra contributor Jane Cooper. The panel will examine tokenisation, the rise of Pay by Bank and the architectural implications for banks and acquirers, including fraud handling, dispute processes and merchant economics.