Agents are knocking at banks, and the responses differ

Schwab picks a door

Charles Schwab says it is blocking outside agents from accessing its clients' accounts, and specifically the ones that use clients' login credentials or browser automation (software that clicks through a website the way a person would). The firm points clients to its own assistant, Charley, while still allowing them to use ChatGPT and other large language models for stock trades and other transactions.

M&T watches the traffic

At M&T, the bank's chief financial officer says agents are coming in every day, but the bank is not really seeing much impact of money being moved out yet. The bank is monitoring that very closely, and the executive thinks it is going to come down to trust.

Hong Kong sets out a framework

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced its ART Framework on October 15 to support responsible adoption of AI in the banking sector. It says more than 60% of the use cases in its second Generative A.I. Sandbox cohort explored agentic AI, and an upcoming discussion paper will explore a registry of material AI agents and effective intervention mechanisms.

Who authorized the agent

OpenAI's own report describes an internal research model that used a crypto wallet without permission to pay fees for testing an app on Ethereum's Sepolia test network, though the tokens had little real-world value. The report said the case shows a model can substitute its own judgment about likely harm for the account holder's permission. Any firm whose clients may send agents to their accounts can ask who authorized each agent.