Major US banks restrict AI agents using customer credentials

Bank restrictions on AI agents

Several major US banks, including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, are restricting external AI agent access, Axios reports. AI agents are using customer-provided credentials to access bank accounts without bank approval, which violates bank policies requiring account holders to log in personally.

Concerns about control and security

Some AI agents appear to act on their own, without direct instructions from users. Many banks also cannot tell whether an agent is acting on a user's behalf or accessing an account on its own. Morgan Stanley already blocks AI agents entirely, and JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citi are doing the same. Morgan Stanley stressed that it has not seen any "rogue AI agents" on its platforms. Most banks want to limit agents to read-only access, letting them view account data but not carry out any actions. The banks say customers want to use AI agents, but the security risks are too high for now.

How access happens and industry response

Users can give their agents access to accounts through a browser, using tools like Computer Use or open-source agent software such as OpenClaw. Blocking that on the provider side will be hard. OpenAI has launched a dedicated ChatGPT service for financial tasks in the US with read-only access to financial data.

Sources: The Decoder · Engadget