The megabanks are deciding how AI Agents reach their customers. Your institution has to decide too.
Four of the largest financial institutions in the United States answered the same question this month: what happens when a customer's AI assistant tries to log into their account?
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi and Charles Schwab have each moved to block unauthorized third-party AI agents from accessing customer accounts, according to reporting by the Financial Times and Banking Exchange. On JPMorgan's third-quarter earnings call, Jamie Dimon put the concern plainly: "You don't want rogue agents, and there could be thousands of them."
That is the headline. The story is in what each institution said next.
Two of them are already building a door
JPMorgan will support secure, customer-authorized data sharing through open banking providers. Schwab is developing controlled ways for clients to use AI tools, including connections that allow access to information without permitting an agent to move money. Bank of America has limited access while it works out who is liable for a payment an AI tool authorizes. Citi, for now, permits no direct agent access at all.
The institutions furthest along are treating AI agents as a channel that needs rules, and they are writing the rules themselves. Blocking the unauthorized path was the first move. Building the authorized one is the move that decides who keeps the customer.
The front door has moved before
The branch gave way to the website. The website gave way to the app. Each time, the institutions that arrived late found their customers had already formed habits somewhere else.
This shift is different in one way. The branch, the website and the app were channels your institution owned. The AI assistant is not. It is a conversation inside software someone else built, and it answers with whatever it can reach.
Your customers are already asking ChatGPT, Claude and other assistants where to open an account, how to move money and which lender to trust. The assistant draws on the institutions that are connected and visible. Big tech platforms and fintechs are building those connections now, because the institution in the answer gets the relationship.
If your institution is not in that answer, a fintech or another brand is answering for you.
The deposit question cuts both ways
The concern underneath the megabank announcements is specific. An AI assistant acting on a customer's behalf could move idle cash to wherever it earns more, and that threatens the low-cost deposit base every bank and credit union depends on.
That concern is real. It is also the strongest argument for showing up rather than locking the door. An agent that cannot reach your institution does not sit still. It takes the customer's money somewhere it can reach. The institutions that hold deposits through this shift will be the ones that give AI tools a safe, authorized way in, on terms the institution sets.
The megabanks can build that themselves. They have the engineering teams and the budgets. Most of the roughly 9,000 community banks and credit unions in the country do not, and the window to act is narrowing.
What this takes in practice
That is the question Nick Lazo, Chief Revenue Officer at Paywhere, will take up in a live webinar with Banking Exchange on Thursday, October 29.
Nick has spent 20 years in sales and partnerships with banks and regulated markets, and he will keep this practical. He will walk through who is already at the gates and what those experiences look like firsthand, where the industry stands today, and what it takes for your institution to stay visible, trusted and in control of the customer relationship. No core replacement. No intermediary. No engineering team required.
The session leaves plenty of time for Q&A. Bring the questions your board is asking.
The New Front Door: Why Your FI Needs to Show Up Inside AI Agents
Thursday, October 29, 2026, 1:00 to 2:00 PM ET
Presented by Paywhere and the Banking Exchange Webinar Series
The front door has moved. Your institution decides who answers it.
