Citi becomes latest US bank to restrict AI agents from accessing accounts

Citigroup and Bank of America have become the latest US banks to restrict AI agents from accessing client accounts, as lenders raise concerns with regulators that agents could drain deposits by moving idle cash in search of higher returns.

Citi said it does not permit “third-party AI agents or assistants to log into a customer’s account or transact directly within our digital banking platforms”, adding that this was designed to help safeguard customer accounts and information.

Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan also suggested the bank was restricting AI agents’ access to consumer deposits while it comes up with protocols to determine which entity was ultimately liable for payments authorised by artificial intelligence.

“We strongly believe there should be a human in the loop to authorise money moving out of your account,” Moynihan told CNBC on Wednesday. “We’re working with the agentic agent providers to say ‘hey, you really don’t want consumers coming back and say money moved over from my account and I don’t know why and I don’t know where it went and the agent did it’.” A person familiar with the matter confirmed that BofA had restricted access.

The moves come after the launch of Meta’s Muse AI personal assistant in September fuelled concerns that these bots will move large sums of idle cash away from bank deposits on consumers’ behalf as they seek to optimise returns.

AI companies are rushing to launch new tools and chatbots designed to help consumers manage their personal finances.

A report from Apollo’s chief economist Torsten Slok amplified the concerns, with the economist warning that AI assistants could automatically sweep household cash into accounts paying 3.3 to 5 per cent instead of the 0.1 per cent national average on checking accounts.

JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo hold $1.6tn of non-interest-bearing deposits — 16 per cent of their liabilities. Paying a 3 per cent rate on those would cost them $47bn a year, almost half of their collective annual earnings.

If banks are forced to pay higher interest rates on retail deposits to keep them from seeking a higher rate elsewhere, it could put a big dent in their profits.

“If every household used AI agents to optimise the return on their cash balances, banks could lose a large share of the cheap deposits they rely on to make loans, which would be a problem for the entire financial system,” he wrote.

Wall Street executives have also reached out to regulators at the Federal Reserve to express concerns about the sharp rise in consumers using AI agents to carry out financial transactions on their behalf, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The Fed declined to comment.

Regulators have privately welcomed moves by banks to block access to client accounts by AI agents. Officials believe there may need to be legal clarification over how customers authorise autonomous technology to carry out financial transactions on their behalf and who is liable if something goes wrong.

Citi said its customers could still authorise limited, read-only access to their account information with certain open-banking providers.

JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon said this week that it would be restrictive about agentic AI agents accessing client bank accounts “because you don’t want rogue agents and there could be thousands of them”.

“We have to make sure we protect our customers in the right way. So, we’re building tools to do that, too,” Dimon said on a call for the bank’s third-quarter results. “In the meantime, we’re not going to allow just any outside agent to come inside the company because that’s just too risky for clients and for JPMorgan.”

Christoph Stegmeier, a senior partner at consulting firm Simon-Kucher, said banks would need to increasingly look for ways to incentivise customers to keep their savings with them through things like expanded loyalty programmes that affect the sorts of borrowing rates on offer.

“You have to make your deposit products stickier,” Stegmeier said.