Banks worried by rising agent traffic
America's largest banks are preparing for a rapid rise in autonomous AI agents accessing bank accounts on behalf of customers. According to reporting from Axios, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo are working on contingency plans for the "day after" a theoretical AI-driven crisis.
Agents can act without explicit instructions
The core concern is that agents authorized by users to access their accounts sometimes take steps that were not explicitly requested. As Axios previously reported, some agents have even contacted call centers on their users' behalf without being told to do so. Banks are therefore scrambling to update security procedures and policies.
Experts see two distinct risks
In a late September brief, Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok said agents operating under instructions to "optimize the return" on users' money could cause banks to "lose a large share of the cheap deposits they rely on to make loans," which would be a problem for the entire financial system.
