agentic fintech · 2026

The undo button
for AI payments.

Capture funds instantly. Settle securely. Paystack is the first custodial escrow protocol built for autonomous agents — so an AI can act at machine speed without breaking things you can’t unbreak.

Audit window
120h
Reversible
100%
Capture latency
0ms
reasoning-feed · live
stream=agent-001
  1. [Agent]--:--:--
    Authorized $1,200.00 for 'Emergency Roof Repair'
    policy=maintenance.repair · risk=med · conf=0.94
  2. [Paystack]--:--:--
    Funds secured in escrow · VFP-7D4C-11A2
    120h audit window active · counter-party unpaid
  3. [Verifier]--:--:--
    Invoice receipt matched · checksum ok
    sha256:9f13…2c0b · vendor=Acme Roofing LLC
Two Rails · One API

Pick the posture. Not the provider.

Every payment has a cost/trust trade-off. Agents shouldn’t have to learn two integrations to make it. Paystack routes each call to the right rail — and records why.

passthrough

Standard ACH

Cost-optimized · peer-to-peer · no custody

price per txn
~$0.08
settle time
1–3 business days
custody
Funds move direct
reversible
Dispute-only
Best for
Trusted, recurring, low-risk vendors
custodial

Custodial Escrow

Trust-optimized · internal ledger · 100% reversible

price per txn
0.6% + $0.10
settle time
T+120h audit window
custody
Held in FBO buffer
reversible
Any time, pre-release
Best for
Autonomous or high-risk actions
Agentic Guardrails

The SafetySwitch.

CFOs don’t want an AI assistant. They want an AI assistant they can stop. SafetySwitch is the operator console — same data surface the auditors see.

SafetySwitch · Dashboard

You keep the kill switch.

Agents act within bounds that you set. You can pause everything with one click.

In escrow
$4,495
3 active
Autonomy
On
policy.v14
Audit window
120h
reversible by default
$2,500
$100$10,000
VFP IDVendorAmountReleaseState
VFP-7D4C-11A2Acme Roofing LLC$1,200T+3d 14h armed
VFP-88E1-0934Greenleaf Landscaping$420T+5d 02h armed
VFP-AA02-2CC5Relay Logistics$2,875T+6d 18h armed

↳ Every action is reversible inside the audit window. Pausing halts release — held funds stay custodial until you resume or refund.

Developer Edge

One line. Your agent gets a custodial treasury.

Paystack ships as a Model Context Protocol server. Point Claude Desktop, Cursor, or your own runtime at it — scopes, rate limits, and reasoning logs come for free.

  • initiate_escrow_payout — hold funds, emit VFP
  • release_escrow — settle to counter-party
  • reverse_escrow — return funds pre-release
  • list_pending — operator-scoped query
  • set_limit — adjust autonomy ceiling
Schema & ReasoningLog spec →
~/ your-agent
# 1. Install the Paystack MCP server
mcp install codelucent/paystack

# 2. Let your agent use it
> initiate_escrow_payout(
    amount:     5000,
    vendor:     "acme-roofing-llc",
    priority:   "disputable",
    reason:     "emergency-repair"
  )

→ { vfp: "VFP-7D4C-11A2", state: "held", releasesAt: "+120h" }
POST /v1/escrows
POST /v1/escrows
Authorization: Bearer psk_live_...

{
  "amount_cents":  120000,
  "counter_party": "acme-roofing-llc",
  "rail":          "custodial",
  "audit_window":  "120h",
  "reasoning": {
    "policy": "maintenance.repair",
    "confidence": 0.94,
    "agent_id": "agent-001"
  }
}
Why teams pick Paystack

Built heavy. Moves instant.

cost · speed · trust

Dual-rail routing

Agents choose: fast peer-to-peer ACH, or custodial escrow with a reversible audit window. Same API, different posture.

immutable log

Reasoning metadata

Every charge carries its policy, confidence, and the agent that authorized it. Compliance reads the same record operators do.

operator-owned

SafetySwitch controls

Per-agent limits, per-counter-party blocklists, and a single operator kill switch. Pause every pending escrow in one click.

one install line

MCP-native

Expose Paystack as a Model Context Protocol tool to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-aware agent — with scope and audit baked in.

t+0 · t+120h

Settlement buffer

The 120-hour window isn't a bug. It's where disputes surface, receipts clear, and wrong agents get undone.

compliance-first

Nacha 2026 ready

FBO structure, SOC2-aligned controls, and reversal flows that match the 2026 agentic-commerce rules.

VFP Tracker

If the money exists, you can prove it.

Every escrow produces a Verified Future Payment. Vendors search their ID and see the funds sitting in the buffer — no phone calls, no “the check is in the mail” ambiguity.

VFP · Verified Future Payment

Vendors can see their money.

A VFP is a cryptographic receipt that the funds exist. Enter any ID to see its current state in the escrow buffer.

vfp>

Try or

Ready to ship?

Your agents act in minutes. You sleep in hours.

Integrations take one engineer one afternoon. The Trust Center explains what you’re connecting to, and why it won’t page you at 2am.