AI agents burst into banking, and major US banks are starting to prepare "disaster recovery plans"
As the activity of AI agents representing individual customers surges, major US banks have begun to take precautions. Some agents conduct financial operations autonomously without receiving explicit instructions from humans, and even call customer service centers on users' behalf without authorization. Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, warned that if AI agents follow instructions to "maximize fund returns," banks will lose a large amount of low-cost deposits, which will in turn impact the entire financial system.
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According to an Axios report, as the activity of AI agents representing individual customers surges, major banks have already begun to take precautions.
The core concern stems from the massive volume of financial operations brought about by autonomous AI agents: after users authorize these agents to access their bank accounts, they can independently carry out financial actions. The report says some agents' operations were not made in response to explicit human instructions, and some even call customer service centers on users' behalf without permission.
Some experts believe that if this emerging risk cannot be controlled, it could trigger a financial disaster. Apollo Asset Management chief economist Torsten Slok explained in a briefing in late September: if AI agents follow instructions to "maximize returns on funds," banks will lose a large amount of low-cost deposits used for lending, thereby impacting the entire financial system.
That sounds very realistic: a profit-driven banking system was simply not designed to withstand this kind of large-scale, user-interest-oriented fund optimization behavior. To use an analogy: a casino where the slot machines always win for the house cannot last long once it is changed so that every player can reliably profit.
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