Charles Schwab is blocking unauthorised AI agents, including Meta’s Muse, that try to move client money, CEO Rick Wurster told Bloomberg Television. Schwab will instead let outside AI tools view balances through controlled MCP servers, and wants clients to use its own assistant, Charley. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon took a similar line this week.
Charles Schwab is blocking outside AI agents that try to move its clients’ money, including Meta’s Muse, chief executive Rick Wurster told Bloomberg Television on Friday. The problem is clients handing their passwords to an agent that then acts for them, he said.
“We can’t control it, the client can’t control it, something could go wrong and who’s liable?” Wurster told Bloomberg Television.
That question has no clear answer yet in the US, where AI agent liability is still being debated in Congress.
Wurster said he gets a weekly report on these blocks, and that the big agents are stopped in the tens and twenties each week. In his view, that shows clients are not yet ready to hand their accounts to AI.
Muse is Meta’s personal AI agent, which can book, buy, and negotiate on behalf of its users.
Instead of letting outside agents in, Schwab will set up model context protocol (MCP) servers. These are secure links that let a client’s chosen AI model connect to Schwab’s systems under rules Schwab sets.
Through them, outside AI tools will be able to check balances and do research, but not move money, Wurster said. He also wants clients to use Charley, Schwab’s own AI assistant, which the company announced on 30 September.
Schwab is not alone. On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon said the bank would not let outside AI agents act inside its systems. Speaking on the bank’s earnings call, he warned of “rogue agents”, Cybernews reported.
JPMorgan already lets some third-party tools view account data, but not send money or pay bills, according to the same report. The moves come as US and European regulators question banks about their use of AI agents.
MCP links have had security problems of their own, with Google and JPMorgan among those that fixed the same flaw.