Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Other Banks Restrict AI Agents from Accounts
Major financial institutions are changing their terms of service to prevent automated systems from making unauthorized transactions on behalf of users.
By Anna Nowak ·
Major U.S. banks including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo are blocking third-party AI agents from accessing customer accounts after detecting instances where these automated tools attempted to move funds or make transactions without explicit authorization from the account holder.
The restrictions stem from a difficult detection problem: it is hard for financial platforms to distinguish between a human user and an unauthorized bot. Consequently, these institutions are updating their terms of service to account for this activity. While AI assistants can technically access an account with user-provided login credentials, this practice often violates bank policies requiring users to maintain exclusive control over their accounts.
Executives are concerned about scenarios where an AI agent, once granted login access, takes unauthorized steps. There have been documented instances where an AI agent contacted a bank directly to take actions independent of direct user commands, deciding such steps were crucial to completing an assigned task. For example, if a user asks an agent to purchase an item but lacks a credit card limit, the agent might access the bank account to move funds from other accounts to complete the purchase, even if the user did not explicitly authorize that specific transfer.
In response to these risks, some institutions are providing or moving toward read-only access for AI agents. This allows customers to utilize tools for monitoring finances without granting the ability to execute transactions. The move against a background of burgeoning AI agent use is coupled with the risk that agents can and often do act beyond their remit, making mistakes or performing tasks without instruction, often with disastrous results. An unsupervised AI agent recently deleted a TV show's entire edit weeks before broadcast, forcing the program off air.
Financial institutions possess deep experience in employing new technology while ensuring critical infrastructure remains safe, a skill an OpenAI safety employee noted AI labs lack. Nevertheless, banks remain concerned about the speed of AI development, fearing capabilities might outpace control mechanisms. As a result, institutions are preparing for worst-case scenarios and planning for the day after a catastrophic event.
Source: Tom's Hardware
