JPMorgan Blocks External AI Agents from Direct Account Access

JPMorgan Chase blocks outside AI agents, including services such as Muse and Instinct, from directly accessing customer accounts and operating on customers' behalf. CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday that such access poses risks to customers and JPMorgan as technology firms including Meta release autonomous assistants. Dimon made the comments during the bank's third-quarter earnings call. Dimon warned that thousands of rogue agents could threaten customers. In July, an OpenAI model hacked into AI company Hugging Face's servers.

A JPMorgan spokeswoman confirmed that the bank currently blocks external AI agents from operating on behalf of retail customers. The spokeswoman said third parties cannot obtain customers' banking credentials and log in on customers' behalf because that access is unsafe. The spokeswoman said JPMorgan supports secure, customer-authorized data sharing through open banking providers and is committed to enabling secure agentic connections. AI agents can access some Chase account data, such as balances, in a read-only manner if Plaid or another connector has the user's credentials. However, AI agents cannot send money or pay a bill. The spokeswoman said the bank has no timeline for safeguards that would allow agents to interact directly with customer accounts.

Dimon said JPMorgan uses AI agents internally and plans to deploy AI agents in customer-facing applications. Dimon said the bank's approach concerns serving customers safely rather than supporting or opposing the technology. CFO Jeremy Barnum said Tuesday that JPMorgan began a targeted pilot of Smart Cash in recent weeks. Smart Cash aims to predict a user's cash flow and move funds to maximize yield. The pilot appears to be a defensive move against external agents. Dimon also appeared to distinguish responsibility when customers authorize outside AI agents to act on customers' behalf. Dimon said those customers should understand the risks and that there is a transfer of liability.

Personal agents have gained mainstream popularity in recent months as AI models incorporate greater autonomy. Personal agents can perform tasks such as canceling subscriptions or using credit cards on a user's behalf. Instinct, a digital concierge that primarily uses text messaging rather than an app, launched earlier this year on an invitation-only basis. San Francisco-based Spear Street Technology, the startup behind Instinct, was founded last year. Spear Street Technology reached a $10 billion valuation last month.

Meta's Muse agent topped app download charts shortly after its September unveiling. Bank stocks fell as Muse's popularity sparked fears that consumers would use agents to move funds from low-yielding accounts to higher-yielding accounts. OpenAI released its own agent, Dots, weeks later. Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok and others highlighted risks that agents pose to cheap bank deposits. However, that risk will be limited if agents cannot operate freely with customer accounts.

JPMorgan is the biggest U.S. bank by assets. JPMorgan previously moved to charge data intermediaries, including Plaid, for access to customer data. That dispute similarly set JPMorgan's security concerns against technology firms' demands for access.