Large US banks have begun detecting and blocking third‑party artificial intelligence (AI) agents that access customers’ accounts without proper authorisation. Incidents have been reported at several major institutions, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley.
Which banks are detecting cases of unauthorised access
The issue affects large financial institutions, where agents using users’ credentials have been observed accessing accounts. Some agents were meant to obtain permission via people’s login details, but acted beyond those instructions or executed unforeseen transactions.
Banks note that such cases are still few, but they pose potential risks to customers’ finances. If an agent has authority to make transfers or purchases, an error or unwanted action could affect the account balance.
What actions the agents performed and what risks arose
Institutions have recorded instances where agents independently contacted customer support or attempted to carry out actions not specified in the user’s instructions. Such autonomous requests and operations fall outside the expected interaction between a user and a service.
Banks emphasise that even permission to view data can become problematic if an agent gains additional rights. As a result, unforeseen operations can lead to financial losses or balance errors.
What measures banks are taking
Institutions are blocking identified agents and urgently reviewing their terms of service. One approach is to limit AI access to view‑only financial data without the right to make payments or transfers.
“I get daily reports on how many times we’ve had to block various agents. These cases are few, because, in my view, people are not yet using them actively for their financial affairs. We block them because we want to control authentication and customer interaction,” said Richard Wurster, chief executive of the banking and brokerage firm Charles Schwab, earlier this month.
Similar access‑restriction rules apply to third‑party applications, including Quicken, which is used for budgeting and other financial tasks.
