The digital payments boom is moving at lightning speed — and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) says security hasn't kept up.
At the Benzinga Fintech Day & Awards 2025, Jelena Hoffart, Director of Identity Value Chain Expansion at Mastercard, warned that the financial system is already operating beyond its safety limits. "We've already enabled bots to make payments, but we don't have the coordinating infrastructure to control them. We're flying without a plane," she said.

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Real-Time Payments, Real-Time Risk

Consumers now expect instant transactions through PayPal Holdings Inc‘s (NASDAQ:PYPL) PayPal, and Block Inc‘s (NYSE:XYZ) Cash App. But Hoffart cautioned that the industry hasn't built the real-time verification systems needed to secure those transfers. "While we can kind of move money in real time… we do not have the infrastructure to verify consumers — let alone agents — in real time," she said.

That gap between transaction speed and authentication could open the door to AI-powered fraud, especially as digital agents start handling payments, logins, and charge disputes autonomously.

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Why Investors Should Pay Attention

As AI agents begin conducting financial activity on behalf of humans, Mastercard's challenge is verifying not only users, but also their bots. "We have to go from a world where we're not only understanding who the human is… but making sure the bot's not co-opted," Hoffart said.

For investors, the takeaway is clear: fintech's next growth wave depends on identity innovation catching up with AI automation. Companies that solve for proof of humanness — and rebuild real-time verification — could define the next leg of the digital payments story.

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Photo courtesy of Corynn Egreczky.