Bank of America is asking customers not to share their banking passwords with AI assistants. The warning came in an email sent to customers this week.
The email was titled “Protecting your finances in the AI World.” It urged customers to never share their username and password with another person or an outside service.
The bank said this includes “an AI-enabled tool or agent that offers to act on your behalf.” A Bank of America spokesperson confirmed the email was real after it was posted to social media.
Why Bank of America Is Warning Customers
Personal AI assistants are becoming more popular. Some customers are giving these tools their bank log-in details so the assistants can handle tasks for them.
This creates several risks. An AI assistant could make changes to a customer’s finances without the customer knowing about it.
A bank’s security system could also flag the activity as suspicious. In that case, the bank might think someone is breaking into the account and lock the customer out.
There is also a risk tied to security flaws. If an AI assistant has a weakness, it could leak banking credentials and give hackers a way into a customer’s account.
Customers Are Responsible for Shared Access
The email made clear who is on the hook if something goes wrong. “If you do share your credentials,” the email reads, “keep in mind that you’re responsible for activity resulting from that access.”
This matches how most banks handle account access. Account agreements at most banks hold customers responsible for anyone they give their log-in details to.
That means a customer who hands a password to an AI tool may have to deal with the results. The bank is placing that responsibility on the account holder.
The warning comes as banks work out how AI agents fit into the financial world. Banks are reportedly dealing with unauthorized agents accessing customer money, according to an Axios report from Oct. 22.
Banks, payment providers, and processors are still deciding how to let customers use AI tools with their accounts. One area being worked on is agentic payments.
Agentic payments let people set AI agents to buy things on their own. For example, an agent could be told to make a purchase at the best price or at the right time.
The issue was also discussed onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt event. The payments industry is still figuring out how to give AI tools access to bank accounts.
For now, Bank of America’s message is simple. Customers should keep usernames and passwords private, even from AI tools that offer to help.
The bank’s email went out this week, and a spokesperson has confirmed it is authentic. Customers who share their log-ins remain responsible for any activity that follows.
