AI agents are roaming around consumers’ bank accounts, and banks aren’t happy about it

October 23, 2026 / 1:46 PM EDT / CBS News

Major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized activity from third-party AI agents operating within their customers' online accounts, according to a new Axios report.

Some of the biggest financial institutions in the U.S. say customers have given their personal AI agents, which are unvetted by banks, access to their financial accounts.

"In a lot of cases, this is just going to be customers giving their username or password to an AI agent that the bank hasn't had a chance to vet yet, that goes against the bank's terms of service," Madison Mills, senior AI reporter for Axios, told CBS News. "In other cases, in our reporting, we did find evidence that appeared to look like agents taking actions in customer accounts that were not authorized."

Examples of agent behavior that a user never approved include the AI calling a bank with a complaint without first consulting the account holder.

"So, really a nightmare of AI agent activity for banks," Mills said.

To be sure, these agents weren't going rogue or hacking customer accounts and depleting their funds, Mills said. They were largely following user instructions without the bank's permission to transact…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/