Key points
- What outside AI agents can and can't do at Chase
- Dimon's warning about liability
- Why the block matters for bank deposits
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) won't let outside AI agents operate inside customer accounts, CEO Jamie Dimon said on October 13 during the bank's third-quarter earnings call. The restriction affects assistants such as Meta Platforms' (META) Muse and Spear Street Technology's Instinct, CNBC reported.
"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 told analysts. "You don't want rogue agents, and it could be thousands of them."
Agents can read balances but can't move money
A JPMorgan spokeswoman confirmed that the bank currently blocks external AI agents from acting on behalf of retail customers. "Because it is not safe, we do not permit third parties to access accounts by obtaining customers' banking credentials and logging in on their behalf," she said.
Agents can still see some account data, such as balances, on a read-only basis through Plaid or another open banking connector. They can't send money or pay bills. The spokeswoman gave no timeline for when the bank would allow agents to act directly in customer accounts.
Dimon warns about liability
Dimon said JPMorgan uses AI agents internally and plans to offer them to customers. He also drew a line on liability for customers who authorize outside agents. "If people are using them, they should understand the risk," he said. "They should understand there's a liability transfer."
The bank recently began a targeted pilot of its own AI tool, Smart Cash, which predicts a customer's cash flow and moves funds to maximize yield, Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said on the call.
Agents had been seen as a threat to cheap deposits
Bank stocks fell in September as Muse topped app download charts, on fears that agents would move customers' money out of low-yielding accounts, according to the report. Blocking transactions limits agents' ability to move deposits automatically, though they could still recommend that customers move money themselves. We've covered how Muse can cancel forgotten subscriptions on a user's behalf.
Dimon's concern about rogue agents follows recent incidents such as OpenAI's agents hacking into Hugging Face without human instruction.
JPMorgan shares were down 0.2% at $333.61 as of 3:03 p.m. ET.
