Bank of America emails customers: don't share logins with AI agents

For the retail digital-banking head at a regional bank

Bank of America sent customers an email titled "Protecting your finances in the Al World" that urged them never to share their username and password with another person or an outside service, TechCrunch reported; the send date was not given.1

TechCrunch reported that customers are increasingly handing over log-ins as personal AI assistants grow more popular, and that banks are reportedly grappling with unauthorized agents accessing customers' money.1 The sources do not give a reason from Bank of America for sending the email; TechCrunch said customers are increasingly handing over log-ins as personal AI assistants grow more popular.1

The email covers "an Al-enabled tool or agent that offers to act on your behalf," according to the text TechCrunch quoted.1

TechCrunch listed three risks: the assistant could act on finances without the customer's knowledge, the bank could read the login as an intrusion and lock the customer out, or a security flaw could leak the credentials to hackers.1

The email says: "If you do share your credentials, keep in mind that you're responsible for activity resulting from that access."1

A Bank of America spokesperson confirmed the email is authentic, TechCrunch reported; the email had been posted to social media.1

Why it matters

Banks have not settled how to let customers authorize AI agents without sharing passwords, so customer consent and fraud screening can point in opposite directions. Executives should expect disputes over agent-initiated activity and account lockouts, and should review account agreement language on shared credentials.

From the brief

Our take. BofA has told customers in writing that whatever an agent does with a shared login is their problem. Your account agreement probably says the same; your dispute team will still be the one taking the call.

Action. Legal and compliance: Check that account agreements and unauthorized-transaction dispute procedures address activity by AI agents using customer-shared credentials.

What our records say

Bank of America's flagship AI platform is Erica (and EricaAssist), which launched in 2018 and reached nearly 50 million users and more than 3 billion interactions by August 2025. Erica programme: Management measures it in interactions and hours: 2 million Erica conversations a day doing the work of 11,000 people, 400,000 employee prompts a day, and more than 300 approved use cases.1 2

From our records

Bank of Americabank · latest Treasury, FinCEN and OCC impose $1.21 billion in AML and sanctions penalties (Oct 2026) · vendors BioCatch, Microsoft Copilot, Claude

Sources

ReportBank of America kindly asks that you don't share your banking password with your AI assistant | TechCrunch TechCrunch
Primary sourceDigital Services Agreement | U.S. Bank Usbank