AP2 x Mastercard / Visa

[basil-ali-khan]

How does AP2 connect with Visa/Mastercard etc?

Looking for resources that help understand both the theoretical and technical side of this.

[conrado44]

AFAIK, Visa/Mastercard play a few roles:

• They work at the VDC layer by issuing 'agentic' payment tokens (ie VTS/MDES) for usage at time of payment
• During dispute/arbitration, they facilitate the usage of a cartMandate/intentMandate and paymentMandate to determine dispute liability.

[sallamdas]

AP2 doesn’t “talk” to Visa or Mastercard the way two apps talk to each other.

Instead, AP2 talks to a processor.
That processor already has the heavy-duty, certified connections to Visa and Mastercard.

So when a card is used:

AP2 sends a payment request to the processor

The processor sends it into the Visa or Mastercard network

The bank that issued the card says yes or no

The answer comes back the same way

Later, AP2 sends the “okay, actually charge it” message, and the processor handles settlement and fees with the networks.

Only very large systems ever connect directly to Visa/Mastercard — and that means special network links, strict formats, audits, and certifications.

In short:
AP2 → Processor → Visa/Mastercard → Bank → back