UK Banks Reportedly Shut the Door on AI Agents

Hey Digital Banking Fanatic!

Would your bank let an AI agent into your account?

In the UK, apparently not. HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds have reportedly moved to block AI agents from accessing customer accounts. In some cases, that reportedly includes bans on agents making transactions without the customer's direct involvement.

The interesting part: the bans are pre-emptive. Lloyds CFO Will Chalmers said the bank had seen no sign of agents accessing accounts, but guards against the risk.

The reported concerns are liability, with no clear rules on who pays if an agent mismanages money, and profits. McKinsey estimates savers could move up to £700 billion out of low- or no-interest accounts.

I suspect that last point matters as much as the security one. An agent that moves your savings to the best rate every week is great for you, and less great for your bank.

The UK isn't alone. Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan are said to have blocked AI agents in the US too.

Of course, these are reports, not published policies, and the FCA is still working with the industry on rules for AI agents in finance.

Here's what else is happening in digital banking today👇

See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

💡 Tuum: Where Should AI Sit in a Bank’s Core? Tuum argues for an “around-the-core” architecture where AI analyzes data and makes recommendations, while the core banking system remains deterministic, auditable and responsible for recording transactions. The approach relies on validated APIs, logged actions, human oversight and the ability to replace AI providers without changing the core system. Tuum’s CPTO Ove Kreison sums up the principle: AI recommends, while the core applies the rules and keeps the record. The article also explores the implications of the EU AI Act, DORA and US model-risk guidance for AI governance in banking. Read the full article here

NEWS

🇺🇸 Alta raises $80M to bring global banking on-chain. Index Ventures led the $47.5M Series A, with GV and Blackbird joining. The company is building blockchain infrastructure for instant, global and programmable financial transactions. Airwallex has chosen to build on Alta, whose co-founders include Airwallex CEO Jack Zhang.

🇺🇸 Incognia secures US patent for location-based user verification technology. Granted by the USPTO on 13 October, U.S. Patent No. 12,764,491 covers technology that uses device sensor data to validate user information.

🇬🇧 UK banks reportedly block AI agents from accessing customer accounts. HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds have reportedly moved pre-emptively, with no signs yet of agents accessing accounts, as the FCA works on rules for AI agents.

🇮🇱 Revolut receives conditional banking licence in Israel. Led by former Pepper CEO Uri Nathan, Revolut Bank Israel has secured conditional approval, becoming Israel's third recipient of a new banking licence since 2019, although it cannot yet begin banking operations.

🇿🇦 Absa aims to complete its African banking expansion within two years. The bank is converting its Nigerian representative office into a merchant bank and opening a representative office in Angola, as it seeks to reduce reliance on South Africa, Kenya and Ghana.

🇵🇾 Paraguay names Jorge Luis Schreiner as central bank president. The Senate approved the economist's appointment, Reuters reports, as fallout from the collapse of digital lender Ueno Bank continues. His predecessor Carlos Carvallo resigned on 3 November.

🇲🇽 BanCoppel adds bill payments and top-ups to its app with tapi. The service, live from 9 November for the bank's 14 million monthly app users, lets customers pay electricity, water, phone and internet bills from their BanCoppel accounts.

🇬🇧 Stripe powers HSBC UK's Tap to Pay for small businesses. Eligible HSBC UK business customers can accept contactless payments on a compatible smartphone without a card reader, setting up the service in the HSBC Business Banking app.

💡 Nik Storonsky on Building Revolut into a Global Financial Super-App. In this interview with Stripe Co-Founder John Collison, Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky discusses scaling to 80 million customers, competing with Amex and Chase in the US, and Revolut’s strict approach to launching and scaling new products. He also explains why the business prioritizes subscriptions over lending, how AI is transforming operations and cross-selling, and why product development matters more than attending industry conferences.

🇭🇹 Mbanq secures core banking deal for Haitian credit union network. The US firm will bring 41 credit unions in the Le Levier federation onto a shared ledger system, with local partner TekNsol managing the set-up.

🇺🇸 Glia surpasses $100M in annual recurring revenue. The banking AI provider's AI sales grew 93% YoY in Q3, and it is deployed at 700 financial institutions reaching about 95 million US consumers.

🇺🇸 Morgan Stanley and Hyperlayer launch programmable loan deposit programme. Wealth clients can access securities-based loan proceeds in existing bank accounts, with use-of-proceeds rules enforced in real time by Hyperlayer's programmable banking technology.

🇩🇪 LIQID migrates over €3B in client assets to Upvest. The German wealth manager moved most of its more than €4B in client assets onto Upvest's investment infrastructure, which also serves Revolut, N26 and bunq.

🇬🇧 Capital on Tap secures up to £200M from NatWest. Backed by the British Business Bank's ENABLE Guarantee programme, the funding will expand the company's lending capacity, helping UK small businesses access flexible working capital through its business credit cards.

🇨🇭 Light Frame raises $5.1M seed for private banking software. Led by Fortino Ventures, the round will support further development of its core banking and portfolio management platform and commercial expansion across EMEA.

🇭🇰 Mox appoints Anshul Sabherwal as CEO. The former Standard Chartered Hong Kong executive succeeds Barbaros Uygun and will lead the digital bank's next growth phase, focusing on making wealth management more accessible to customers.

🇳🇱 Backbase appoints two CTOs for digital and agentic banking. Greg Fahy becomes CTO for digital banking and Deepak Pandey CTO for agentic banking, with both internal promotions effective immediately.

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