Bank of America Warns Customers: Don't Give Your Bank Password to AI Assistants
Bank of America sent customers an email titled "Protecting Your Finances in an AI World," asking users never to share their usernames and passwords with others or with external services, including "AI tools or agents that offer to act on your behalf." The bank warned that sharing credentials could lead an AI assistant to move funds without the user's knowledge, trigger a bank risk-control account lock, or leak credentials through security vulnerabilities in the AI assistant; most banks' account agreements stipulate that customers are responsible for activity arising from the use of their login information.
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Financial giant Bank of America is reminding customers to bank safely by kindly not sharing your banking credentials with your AI agent.
In an email blast to customers titled “Protecting your finances in the Al World,” Bank of America urged customers to never share their username and password with another person or an outside service, “including an Al-enabled tool or agent that offers to act on your behalf.”
You can practically sense the frustration in the person sending the email. Still, customers are increasingly handing over their log-ins as personal AI assistants grow more popular . Sharing your banking username and password with an AI assistant runs the risk that it could do something with your finances without your knowledge, or that your bank thinks someone’s raiding your account and locks you out of it. Worse, a security flaw in the AI assistant could result in it leaking your banking credentials elsewhere, giving financially motivated hackers a way into your bank account.
This latest warning comes as banks are still exploring how AI agents fit into the financial world but are reportedly grappling with unauthorized agents accessing their customers’ money . As we discussed onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt , banks, payment providers, and processors are still trying to figure out how to allow customers access to their bank accounts using AI tools, such as for agentic payments, which allow people to set agents to autonomously buy things at the best price or the right time.
A spokesperson for Bank of America confirmed the authenticity of the bank’s email that was posted to social media . But heed the bank’s warning, for if things go wrong, it’s on you. Account agreements at most banks hold customers responsible for anyone they give their log-in to. “If you do share your credentials,” its email reads, “keep in mind that you’re responsible for activity resulting from that access.”
(via Bryan Toporek )