Citigroup and Bank of America have become the latest U.S. banks to restrict AI agents' access to customer accounts, amid concerns the institutions have raised with regulators that these agents could empty deposits by moving idle funds in search of higher yields.
Citi said it does not allow "third-party AI agents or assistants to access a customer's account or perform transactions directly on our digital banking platforms," saying the measure was designed to help protect customers' accounts and information.
Bank of America's Brian Moynihan also indicated that the bank has begun restricting AI agents' access to individual deposits while it develops protocols to determine which entity would ultimately be responsible for payments authorized by artificial intelligence.
"We firmly believe that there must be a person involved to authorize the withdrawal of money from your account," Moynihan told CNBC television on Wednesday (14).
"We're working with independent agent providers to say, 'Look, you really don't want consumers to come back and say the money came out of my account, I don't know why or where it went, and the agent did it,'" he said. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that BofA restricted access.
The measures were adopted after the launch in September of Meta's Muse AI personal assistant fueled concerns that robots could transfer large sums of idle funds out of bank deposits on behalf of consumers in an attempt to maximize returns.
AI companies are racing to launch new tools and chatbots aimed at helping consumers manage their personal finances.
A report from Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo, raised fears. He warned that AI assistants could automatically transfer households' money into accounts with yields of 3.3% to 5%, rather than the national average of 0.1% on current accounts.
JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo hold US$1.6 trillion (R$8.2 trillion) in non-interest-bearing deposits — equivalent to 16% of their liabilities. Paying a 3% tax on these resources would cost them US$47 billion (R$238.43) per year, almost half of their combined annual profits.
If banks are forced to pay higher interest on retail deposits to prevent these funds from seeking better rates elsewhere, this could significantly reduce their profits.
“If all households used AI agents to maximize the yield on their cash balances, banks could lose a large portion of the low-cost deposits they rely on to make loans, which would be a problem for the entire financial system,” said Slok.
Wall Street executives have also contacted Federal Reserve regulators to raise concerns about the sharp rise in consumers using AI agents to conduct financial transactions on their behalf, according to a person familiar with the conversations. The Fed declined to comment.
Behind the scenes, regulators have welcomed banks' moves to block AI agents from accessing customer accounts. Officials believe it may be necessary to legally clarify how customers authorize autonomous technologies to carry out financial transactions on their behalf and who is responsible if something goes wrong.
Citi stated that its customers can still authorize certain open banking providers to have limited and query-only access to their account information.
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, said this week that the bank would restrict AI agents' access to customer accounts "because no one wants rogue agents, and there could be thousands of them."
"We need to make sure we're protecting our customers in the right way. That's why we're also developing tools for that," Dimon commented in a conference call about the bank's third quarter results. "In the meantime, we will not allow any outside agent to simply walk into the company because that is too risky for clients and for JPMorgan."
Christoph Stegmeier, senior partner at consultancy Simon-Kucher, said banks will need to look for ways to encourage customers to keep their savings with them, through initiatives such as expanding loyalty programs that influence the rates offered on loans.
“You need to make your deposit products more capable of retaining customers,” he analyzed.
