JPMorgan and Schwab Block Outside AI Agents From Moving Money as JPMorgan Pilots Its Own

Charles Schwab is blocking unauthorized AI agents, including Meta’s Muse, from moving clients’ money, CEO Rick Wurster said Friday in a Bloomberg Television interview, Bloomberg reports. An AI agent is software that takes actions for a user, such as logging in and sending a payment, instead of only answering questions. Gizmodo framed the moves by Schwab and JPMorgan Chase as banks refusing agents that move money.

Both banks are building their own

JPMorgan began a targeted pilot of its own AI tool, Smart Cash, in recent weeks, Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said on Tuesday’s earnings call, CNBC reports. It aims to predict a customer’s cash flow and move funds to maximize yield, the interest a customer earns on idle cash. CNBC wrote that the pilot “would appear to be a defensive move against external agents.” Dimon said the bank already uses AI agents internally and plans to deploy them in customer-facing products, and that its approach is about making sure the technology serves customers safely, not about being for or against it, CNBC reports.

Schwab’s answer is Charley, an in-house AI assistant announced Sept. 30, The Next Web reports. Charley will handle administrative and informational tasks to start, not trading, Gizmodo reports, citing Bloomberg.

Who carries the risk

Dimon put the risk on the customer. “If people are using them, they should understand the risk,” he said on the call, as quoted by Banking Dive. “There’s a liability transfer. They should understand the liability transfer. If data is being misused, they should understand it’s being misused.”

JPMorgan is closing the back door on AI agents and leaving the front door open.

The bank blocks outside agents that log in with a customer's banking credentials, typing the username and password as if they were you, a spokesperson told Fortune.

What it allows instead is… pic.twitter.com/sCx6IOQ6mX

— Aaron Harme (@Aaron_Harme) October 16, 2026

Wurster told Yahoo Finance that AI could help clients research stocks and set up trading processes, Gizmodo reports, but that letting agents make decisions without human approval is “a leap too far.”

There’s no timeline for JPMorgan allowing agents to interact directly with customer accounts, CNBC reports.

The deposit question

McKinsey warned in April that retail banks could lose their direct relationship with customers if AI agents move money in search of better rates, Banking Dive reports.

“If I was a regulator, I’d try to be prepared for that,” Dimon said of the chance that bots and agents could hurt someone and cause a problem. He also said regulators should consider how agentic AI’s possible effect on deposits could affect liquidity risk management, a bank’s ability to cover withdrawals with cash on hand.

Sources

• Bloomberg Law: US Banks Block AI Agents Attempting to Move Money for Customers (Paige Smith, Oct. 16, 2026)
• Gizmodo: After Muse Launch, U.S. Banks Are Saying Hell No to AI Agents Moving Money (Tom McKay, Oct. 16)
• CNBC: JPMorgan blocks outside AI agents like Muse, Instinct from account access (Oct. 13)
• The Next Web: Schwab and JPMorgan are blocking AI agents from moving customer money
• Banking Dive: JPMorgan CEO Dimon warns customers of ‘liability transfer’ with AI