Bank of America and Citi Take Action to Restrict AI Agents

Citigroup and Bank of America have become the latest U.S. banks to restrict AI agents' access to customer accounts. Recently, several banks have expressed concerns to regulators that these intelligent agents could move idle cash in pursuit of higher yields, leading to deposit outflows from banks. Citigroup said it does not permit "third-party AI agents or assistants to log into customer accounts or conduct transactions directly within our digital banking platforms." The bank added that the measure is intended to protect customer accounts and the security of their information. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan also indicated that the bank is restricting AI agents' access to consumer deposits while developing protocols to determine which party should ultimately bear responsibility for AI-authorized payments. In an interview earlier this week, Moynihan said: "We strongly believe that before money moves out of your account, there should be human involvement and authorization." He said: "You certainly don't want consumers coming back to tell us: 'Money was transferred out of my account, I don't know why, and I don't know where it went, and it was all done by an intelligent agent.'" **Could Deal a Blow to Bank Profitability** Last month, Meta released its personal AI agent Muse. The product's explosive popularity has raised concerns that these Siasun Robot&Automation could move large amounts of idle cash out of bank deposit accounts on behalf of consumers in pursuit of higher yields. Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok warned that AI assistants could automatically move households' idle cash into accounts yielding 3.3% to 5% annually, while the national average rate on U.S. checking accounts is only 0.1%. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo currently hold approximately $1.6 trillion in non-interest-bearing deposits, equivalent to 16% of the three banks' liabilities. If these deposits required 3% interest, banks would face approximately $47 billion in additional annual interest costs. If banks are forced to raise deposit rates to prevent retail customers from moving funds elsewhere for higher rates, this could deal a major blow to bank profits. Slok wrote: "If every household uses AI agents to optimize the yield on cash balances, banks could lose a significant portion of the low-cost deposits they rely on to make loans, and this would become a problem for the entire financial system." **Need to Clarify the Boundaries of Responsibility** Regulators have privately welcomed banks' moves to block AI agents from accessing customer accounts. Regulatory officials believe that legislation may be needed in the future to further clarify two issues: 1. How customers authorize autonomously operating AI technology to execute financial transactions on their behalf; 2. Who bears legal responsibility if a transaction goes wrong. Citigroup said that with certain open banking service providers, customers can still authorize limited read-only access to their account information. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon also said this week that the bank will impose strict restrictions on AI agents' access to customer bank accounts. "Because you don't want rogue intelligent agents, and there could be thousands of them," Dimon said. "We must ensure we protect customers in the right way. So we are also developing the corresponding tools." He added: "Until then, we will not allow any external intelligent agents to freely enter the company's systems, because the risk is too high for both customers and JPMorgan." Christoph Stegmeier, a senior partner at consulting firm Simon-Kucher, said banks will increasingly need to find ways to keep customers' savings with them through various incentives. For example, banks could expand loyalty programmes and let these programmes influence the terms of financial products such as loan rates that customers can obtain. "You have to make your deposit products stickier." This article is reproduced from Cailianshe. Edited by GMTEight: Chen Wenfang.