Five of Britain’s biggest banks, HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds, have moved to keep AI agents out of their customers’ accounts, The Telegraph reported on November 8. An AI agent is a program that carries out tasks for a person, such as paying bills or moving savings, often after the person hands over a username and password. Some of the banks specifically bar these programs from making payments without the customer’s direct involvement. The bans are preventive. Lloyds’ finance chief, Will Chalmers, said the bank had seen no sign of agents getting into accounts but guards against the risk. In October, Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley took similar steps in the United States.

The banks’ worry is who pays when software makes a mistake with someone’s money. JPMorgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, told investors he did not want “rogue agents,” adding that “there could be thousands of them.” Charles Schwab’s chief executive, Rick Wurster, said the firm blocks between 10 and 20 clients a week from using agents, including Meta’s assistant Muse, which is expected to arrive in Britain. Citi still lets approved services see account details without moving money. Wells Fargo’s online agreement, according to American Banker, treats any instruction from an AI agent as if the customer had given it, with no further check. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority is now working with other regulators on rules for AI agents in finance.