How agnostic vaulting puts merchants in control

Every checkout is a make-or-break moment.

Payment infrastructure is no longer just plumbing – it’s a strategic asset. As merchants expand across markets and channels, managing payment credentials securely, flexibly and intelligently has become central to both agility and customer experience.

Too many businesses are still boxed in by legacy systems and one-vendor bundles that slow innovation. At Worldpay, we believe it’s time to break free. That’s why we’ve introduced vaulting-as-a-service – a standalone, acquirer-agnostic solution that gives merchants real control over their credentials.

Why payment credentials matter

Payment credentials – credit and debit cards, plus their tokenised versions – are the foundation of every transaction. They’re more than data points; they’re the building blocks of payment authorisation.

When credentials aren’t managed well, merchants face:

• More failed authorisations
• More customer frustration
• Lost sales

Preparing for agentic commerce: The next frontier in payments

As commerce shifts toward more intelligent, autonomous models – like agentic commerce, where AI agents buy on a customer’s behalf – strong credential infrastructure is critical. Agentic commerce demands a new kind of infrastructure, one that can support real-time credential updates, token lifecycle management and multi-provider routing without friction. Tokens, account updater services and credential orchestration will become the backbone of these autonomous transactions, ensuring that AI agents can transact smoothly across geographies, platforms and acquirers.

Worldpay’s vaulting-as-a-service is purpose-built for this shift. By decoupling credential management from acquiring relationships, it empowers merchants to build resilient, flexible and future-ready payment stacks. Whether it's a human at checkout or an AI agent executing a purchase, merchants need infrastructure that’s secure, scalable and smart enough to keep up. Vaulting-as-a-service is not just compatible with agentic commerce, it’s designed to enable it.

How bundled stacks hold merchants back

Traditionally, providers tied credential management to a bundled acquiring deal. That all-or-nothing approach forces merchants to choose between functionality and freedom. Bundled solutions can be convenient – but often means vendor lock-in and less strategic control.

On the flip side, some standalone providers unbundle services but lack the scale, traditional acquiring reliability or depth enterprise merchants need.

Vaulting-as-a-service: A new model for merchant control

Vaulting-as-a-service was built for modern merchants who demand flexibility, performance and control. It’s a standalone, acquirer-agnostic solution that securely stores and intelligently manages credentials – built to lift authorisation rates.

Key benefits:

• Freedom to choose. Work with multiple acquirers while keeping credentials unified and current.
• Optimised performance. Use network tokens, account updater services and payment account references (PARs) to boost approvals.
• Cost efficiency. Cut the cost of building and maintaining PCI DSS-compliant infrastructure.
• Scalability. Grow your stack without re-architecting your credential strategy.
• Ready for agentic commerce: Built to support the next wave of intelligent, autonomous transactions.
• Expertise in traditional acquiring processes

How it works

Merchants can plug in vaulting-as-a-service in two ways:

1. Credential API

A single endpoint that connects to services for:

• Network tokenisation
• Account Updater
• Security Tokens
• Token Lifecycle management
• Payment Account Reference

2. Forward API

Acts as an agent of the merchant or partner, enabling:

• Multi-acquirer support
• Consistent payment credential flow across providers
• Credential orchestration

This modular design lets merchants build payment experiences that are resilient, future-proof and tailored to their business.

Why it matters now

Enterprise merchants are adopting multi-acquirer strategies to:

• Optimise costs
• Increase flexibility
• Expand geographic coverage
• Boost redundancy and performance

But without agnostic credential management, these strategies stall. Vaulting-as-a-service gives merchants the tools to break free from legacy constraints and build infrastructure that reflects their strategy – not their vendor’s.

Building the future of payments

At Worldpay, we combine the scale and reliability of a global provider with the agility and innovation of a modern fintech. Vaulting-as-a-service is more than a product; it’s a philosophy. It’s about giving merchants control over their data, their relationships and their future.

As commerce becomes more intelligent, autonomous and global, payments infrastructure must evolve. With vaulting-as-a-service, Worldpay is leading that evolution – one credential at a time.