Visa and IBKR let AI agents move money as Goldman commits $500M

Visa (NYSE: V) put AI agents into business payments on Oct. 21, and Interactive Brokers (Nasdaq: IBKR) let them trade for clients the same day, while Moody's, Deutsche Börse and Goldman Sachs published results and a $500 million commitment between Oct. 20 and Oct. 22.

The common thread is software that moves money without a human click. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller said on Sept. 29 that such agents could change how often and when payments happen.

A Fed governor maps out payments by AI agents

Payments by software agents are now on the central bank's agenda. In a speech on payments in the age of AI agents at Sibos 2026 in Miami, Waller said agentic transactions could change the frequency and timing of payments.

Business payments are where Visa is testing first. Juniper Research projects global B2B virtual card volume will reach $14.6 trillion by 2029, or 83% of the virtual card market, according to Visa's Oct. 21 release.

That implies a total virtual card market of about $17.6 trillion in 2029, our calculation shows. Visa said its supplier-spend tool has helped financial institutions identify more than $600 billion in potential cardable spend.

By the numbers

Visa and IBKR hand agents payments and orders

Visa's pilot with BILL and Billtrust lets AI agents start and complete invoice payments that buyers have already approved, the company said. Tokenized credentials replace shared supplier-portal logins.

Interactive Brokers launched Autonomous Trading on Oct. 21, letting eligible clients authorize connected AI to scan more than 75,000 stocks, options and ETFs and submit orders. The AI trades only from a separately funded AI Partition, the broker said.

Goldman Sachs committed $500 million on Oct. 22 to a Small Business AI Institute serving another 10,000 businesses, about $50,000 per business by our calculation. Anthropic, Google, Meta and OpenAI are partners, the bank said.

Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO) reported third-quarter revenue of $2.023 billion on Oct. 21, up 1%, according to its earnings release. Moody's Analytics rose 3% to $936 million, 46% of the total by our calculation.

Deutsche Börse Group reported third-quarter net profit of €559 million ($627 million) on Oct. 20, up 18%, and raised its 2026 net revenue forecast again, the group said.

"These agents can plan and execute multistep processes ... to transact autonomously," Waller said in his Sept. 29 speech at Sibos.

Visa's pilot and the IBKR launch put that idea into live use with clients.

Results on Oct. 27 will test the agent push

Visa reports fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results after the U.S. market close on Oct. 27, the company said. Any figure on agent-initiated payments would show whether the pilot scales.

S&P Global reports third-quarter results at about 7:15 a.m. EDT on Oct. 27, the company said, giving a second ratings read after Moody's.

Neither Visa nor Interactive Brokers disclosed how many transactions their agent features have handled.

How we reported this: Visa, Interactive Brokers, Goldman Sachs, Moody's and Deutsche Börse supplied the news in releases dated Oct. 20-22; the Fed speech was read at its source. The dollar figure uses the ECB reference rate of 1.1215 on Oct. 20 (€559 million × 1.1215); 46% is $936 million / $2.023 billion; $50,000 is $500 million / 10,000; $17.6 trillion is $14.6 trillion / 0.83.