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JPMorgan Blocks Outside AI Agents From Retail Customer Accounts, Dimon Says

For the head of digital banking at a regional bank

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said on Tuesday, Oct. 13, on the bank's third-quarter earnings call that the bank is blocking external AI agents from operating on behalf of retail customers, according to Quartz, which cited CNBC's report of the call.1

Dimon said the bank will not allow just any outside agent inside the company "because it's just too risky for clients and for JPMorgan," according to CNBC as quoted by Quartz.1 A JPMorgan spokeswoman told CNBC the bank prohibits outside parties from gaining account access by collecting customers' login credentials and using them to sign in, Quartz reported.1

Under the current limits, AI agents can pull limited account information, such as balances, through intermediaries like Plaid on a view-only basis, but cannot transfer funds or settle bills, according to CNBC as cited by Quartz.1

Dimon said customers who use such agents "should understand there's a liability transfer," according to CNBC as cited by Quartz.1

The bank said it supports data sharing through open banking providers and is committed to enabling "agentic connections" securely, but gave no timeline for when outside agents might interact directly with customer accounts, Quartz reported.1

CFO Jeremy Barnum also said the bank has launched a limited pilot of Smart Cash, a proprietary product designed to forecast a user's cash flow and shift funds toward higher-yield options, and Dimon said JPMorgan uses AI agents internally and plans to deploy them in customer-facing applications, according to Quartz.1

Why it matters

Banks now have a working template for handling customer-authorized AI agents: block credential-based logins, allow view-only data through aggregators, and shift liability to the customer. Executives should settle their own policy on agent access, liability terms and aggregator agreements, since customers will likely use these tools whether or not the bank has a position.

From the brief

Our take. JPMorgan lets outside agents read balances but not move money, while piloting Smart Cash to move customer funds itself. If your bank has no written agent policy, your customers' passwords are the policy.

Action. Digital banking and legal: Write a policy on credential-based agent logins that separates read-only aggregator access from money movement and states who bears losses.

What our records say

JPMorgan's stated posture is "Build the platform, rent the models, deploy to everyone — then redeploy the people."1 The records describe a technology budget of nearly $20 billion a year, more than 63,000 technologists, and a proprietary generative-AI platform, LLM Suite.1

  1. JPMorgan: AI programme summary (part 1)

From our records

Sources

  1. ReportJPMorgan blocks outside AI agents from accessing customer accounts Qz