Hecto Financial is taking part in building a global AI payment standard and stepping up its AI agent payment business.

Hecto Financial said on July 20 it joined the x402 Foundation, a group of global digital finance and blockchain companies.

The x402 Foundation is an open-source project that builds a global payment standard for AI agent payments. It supports AI agents so they can make payments and execute transactions with stablecoins without human intervention.

Hecto Financial is speeding up efforts to build AI agent payment infrastructure by joining x402 after previously joining the Circle Payment Network. The company said it secured a global stablecoin payment network that can be used for AI agent payments through CPN.

Hecto Financial plans to combine its existing payment and settlement infrastructure with CPN and x402 to build payment infrastructure that enables AI agents to carry out tasks from purchasing products to using services. It is designed for an environment in which AI agents search for products online and handle payments in line with user instructions.

It is also developing related technology. Hecto Financial completed a proof of concept in June for AI agent payment technology based on Google’s AI agent payment standard, AP2. The company plans to push for commercialisation in the third quarter and expand applications to a “universal cart” environment that allows users to add products from multiple online shopping malls to a single cart and pay at once.

After commercialisation, it plans to provide AI payment infrastructure to small business owners and small and medium-sized sellers that find it difficult to respond on their own to an AI commerce environment. It aims to support smaller sellers, as well as large platforms, so they can adopt AI agent payments.

Choi Jong-won (최종원), chief executive of Hecto Financial, said, "As AI agents establish themselves as new actors in economic activity, payment infrastructure is also facing a new paradigm." He added, "We will continue to advance AI payment infrastructure based on global standards and create an environment in which anyone can participate in AI commerce."