The Rise of Programmatic Payments and the New Compliance Challenge

A payment used to begin with a person making a decision: swiping a card, approving a transfer, or authorizing a purchase. Increasingly, that decision is being embedded into software. As programmatic payments become more common—and as agentic AI expands their reach—financial institutions must adapt to a landscape where transactions may be initiated by systems acting on behalf of businesses and consumers.

The opportunity is significant, but so is the challenge of ensuring those systems behave as intended.

In a PaymentsJournal Podcast, FinScan’s Kieran Holland, Global Head of Solutions Engineering, and Chris Ostrowski, Head of Product Management, as well as James Wester, Co-Head of Payments at Javelin Strategy and Research, explored the present and future of programmatic payments—from the rise of automated transactions to the new demands they create for fraud prevention, compliance, and oversight.

A World of Multiple Payments

One reason programmatic payments have become increasingly important is that financial activity is becoming more continuous and embedded into everyday processes. Instead of a handful of large, manually initiated payments, businesses and consumers are relying on a steady stream of smaller, automated transactions triggered by specific events, behaviors, or needs.

“We all want to pay our Netflix subscriptions,” said Holland. “We all want Alexa to go out and buy groceries when we say, ‘Hey Alexa, I'm running low on mangos.’ Programmatic payments is just the background technology that's driving a more transactional world.”

Digital platforms have also normalized recurring and event-driven payments. Consumers are more comfortable authorizing transactions that occur automatically under specific conditions—whether that means renewing a subscription, purchasing additional credits for an AI platform after reaching a usage threshold, or completing a payment triggered by a predefined event. These experiences have changed consumer expectations around when and how payments can happen, making automated transactions feel like a natural part of everyday digital interactions.

“You have that ability to trigger searches and purchases when that TV you've been waiting forever to buy hits that right price point,” said Ostrowski. “It's similar to the concept within the stock market where you're waiting for stocks take a certain price and then it executes. That's very much similar what you're doing to these programmatic payments in a 24/7/365 economy.”

Moving at Machine Speed

Especially for larger organizations, payments are no longer just financial events. They are increasingly embedded directly into digital platforms and operational systems. When programmatic payments are triggered by events such as a completed transaction or a supply chain milestone, companies can maintain control while automating workflows and allowing money to move at machine speed.

These changes are happening at the consumer level as well. For example, parking apps have become a common frustration for drivers visiting new locations. Many parking lots now require downloading a separate app before a payment can be made.

“I used to have to type my credit card information into each and every single one of these parking apps depending on where I was parking,” said Holland. “I went to the coast and this new parking app said, ‘Do you want to log in with Google?’ Yes. ‘Do you want to authorize a payment through Google Pay?’ Yes, I do.”

“Four hours later, it prompted me: ‘Hey, you're running low on parking time. Do you want to add some more?’ Yes, done. That's a really tangible advantage, where I can just delegate it through Google Pay or Apple Pay,” he said.

Fighting Financial Crime & Fraud

Because these payments are completed so quickly—and because many involve relatively small dollar amounts—existing fraud detection and security systems must evolve to identify and mitigate emerging risks.

“Your systems really have to be fine-tuned to detect those risks