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Jesse McWaters
EVP, Head of Global Policy
Mastercard
Jesse McWaters leads Mastercard’s global policy function, where he is responsible for directing the company’s policy strategy on a wide range of issues including digital assets, cross-border payments, real-time payments, open finance, digital ID, cyber-security, and fraud. Prior to joining Mastercard, Jesse served as Financial Technology & Innovation Lead at the World Economic Forum and as a financial services strategy consultant at Deloitte, supporting large-scale technology transformations and the roll-out of new business models for leading banks, insurers, and wealth managers.
Speaking at SFF 2026
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3:30–4:00pmThu 19 NovPolicy StageHall 3, Singapore EXPOOpen
Technology Rewiring
Agentic Payments: Are Our Rails Ready?
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Jesse McWatersEVP, Head of Global PolicyMastercard
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Kelvin LiSenior Vice PresidentAnt International
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Jeremy GoroHead of Financial Services Strategy & Partnerships, EMEAGoogle
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Jo YeoDirectorMonetary Authority of SingaporeModerator
About this session
For decades, payment systems have been designed around human behaviour. AI agents play by different rules. Unlike humans, agents do not care about rewards, interfaces or brand loyalty. They optimise for speed, cost, and reliability.
As agents begin making payments on behalf of users and businesses, they may transact at a scale and frequency never seen before, paying for everything from AI services and digital content to machine-to-machine interactions. The result could be millions of low-value transactions that challenge the economics and design of today's payment infrastructure.
Are our payment rails ready for this future? As PayNow Gen2 considers capabilities relevant to agentic commerce, this session explores whether existing payment rails can adapt, what role programmable money could play, and how payment infrastructure must evolve when machines start choosing how to pay. -
