Wall Street Giant Warns AI Agents Could Trigger a New Kind of Bank Run

Torsten Sløk, chief economist at Apollo, cautioned on Sunday that artificial intelligence agents like Meta’s Muse might soon transfer cash out of bank accounts offering 0.1% and deposit it into accounts yielding up to 5%.

Such AI agents function autonomously for users rather than simply answering inquiries. Sløk noted that widespread adoption of this behavior could strip financial institutions of the inexpensive deposits they typically use for lending.

How Much a 0.1% Bank Account Costs You

A checking account with a 0.1% interest rate generates roughly $10 annually on a $10,000 balance. In contrast, that same amount earns about $500 at a 5% rate.

The report issued by Sløk features 11 online and fintech accounts offering yields between 3.3% and 5%. Adelfi leads the list at 5%, followed by SoFi at 4.5%. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) national averages referenced in the note, rates stand at 0.4% for savings and 0.1% for checking.

Banks traditionally maintain profitability by offering low rates to savers while lending out those funds at significantly higher rates.

“If every household used AI agents to optimize the return on their cash balances, banks could lose a large share of the cheap deposits they rely on to make loans, which would be a problem for the entire financial system,” read an excerpt in the report.

Can Muse Move Your Money Yet?

Meta released Muse on September 8. Plaid, the data connectivity platform linking the tool to over 12,000 US applications and financial institutions, states that users can view mortgage information, investments, transactions, and balances through the assistant.

While Plaid’s announcement does not confirm that Muse can transfer funds between accounts, Sløk characterizes this automated sweep as a development that “could soon” occur, basing his warning on the premise that households universally adopt these agents.

Consumer interest in the application is growing. JPMorgan increased its price target for Meta on Thursday, noting that Muse has the potential to become the most widely adopted consumer AI tool since ChatGPT.

Market Watchers Say Savers Are Already Moving Cash

Chartered financial analyst Mike Zaccardi stated that he personally parks his cash in BOXX, an exchange-traded fund designed to track returns comparable to short-term Treasury bills.

“Is an Agentic Bank Run Coming? AI assistants are about to auto-sweep cash from 0.1% checking accounts into 5% yields. If everyone adopts them, banks lose their cheap deposit base… risking a systemic crunch,” wrote Zaccardi.

Nate Geraci, co-founder of the ETF Institute, remarked that both cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence are disrupting the traditional banking framework, advising politicians to support the transition instead of resisting it.

Capitol Hill is already debating yield offerings for savers. Stablecoin yields represent a point of contention in efforts to revive the Clarity Act crypto legislation, which failed a procedural vote in the Senate on September 15.

Sløk’s advisory does not provide projections regarding the total volume or velocity of potential cash movements.

Frequently Asked Questions