What changed
Major US banks, including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, are restricting access by AI agents that log in with customer credentials. These banks are blocking external AI agents from accessing accounts without explicit bank approval. Morgan Stanley has already blocked AI agents entirely, while JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citi are implementing similar restrictions.
What this means in practice
The banks are concerned about AI agents acting independently without direct user instructions, which violates their policies requiring account holders to log in personally. Most banks want to limit agents to read-only access, allowing them to view account data but not perform actions. Banks also struggle to determine whether an agent is acting on a user's behalf or accessing an account autonomously. Users can grant agents access through tools like Computer Use or open-source software such as OpenClaw, but blocking this access on the provider side is challenging.
Limitations and availability
The banks have not reported any instances of 'rogue AI agents' on their platforms. OpenAI has launched a dedicated ChatGPT service for financial tasks in the US with read-only access to financial data. The supplied announcement does not specify the exact technical methods banks are using to block AI agents or the timeline for these restrictions.
