Schwab and JPMorgan are blocking outside AI agents as RBC weighs a similar move

Charles Schwab $SCHW is shutting out unauthorized AI agents that attempt to sign in for its clients, President and CEO Rick Wurster told analysts on Oct. 14, according to The Epoch Times. Wurster said the problem lies with outside agents that borrow a client’s login details to operate within Schwab’s systems and bypass the brokerage’s own safeguards, not with the technology.

Schwab plans to let third-party AI models connect through Model Context Protocol servers, which give an AI system defined permissions, according to The Epoch Times. Under that approach, an outside model could pull data like balances or research on investments, yet it would be barred from riskier steps such as transferring funds. Schwab is also launching a proprietary generative AI assistant called Charley that can field customer questions and take care of some administrative chores.

Royal Bank of Canada CEO Dave McKay said he is weighing whether to cut off Muse, the AI tool from Meta $META Platforms, from reaching customer data held at the bank, according to Bloomberg. Bloomberg also reports that the Bank of England is weighing a stress test to gauge how lenders would hold up against different kinds of turmoil sparked by AI. Regulators fear that herding could magnify market strains if many automated systems react to a crisis in the same fashion, according to Bloomberg.

"We're not going to allow just any … outside agent to come in inside the company, because it's just too risky for clients and for JPMorgan," Dimon said. "You don't want rogue agents, and it could be thousands of them."

JPMorgan bars outside parties from gaining account access by collecting customers' login credentials and using them to sign in. AI agents can pull limited information such as balances through intermediaries like Plaid on a view-only basis, but they cannot transfer funds or settle bills. The bank supports data sharing through open banking providers and has given no timeline for letting outside agents interact directly with customer accounts.

Dimon also addressed customer responsibility. "If people are using them, they should understand the risk," he said. "They should understand there's a liability transfer."

Apollo Global Management Chief Economist Torsten Slok warned in September that increasingly capable financial assistants could create what he called an “agentic bank run,” in which software continually seeks higher returns and moves cash out of low-yield accounts, according to The Epoch Times. Wells Fargo $WFC CEO Charlie Scharf called the idea of an AI-driven exodus to higher-yielding alternatives “completely overdone” on an Oct. 13 earnings call, according to The Epoch Times.