Several of Canada's biggest banks are now blocking third-party AI agents from accessing their online banking services as the financial industry grows concerned about potential risks to institutions and people's wealth.
TD, Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Montreal confirmed this week they have taken steps to ban the software tools, often described as personal AI assistants, from directly accessing authenticated banking platforms.
"TD has made the decision to block all third-party personal AI agents from direct access to banking information, where authentication is required, while we ensure the appropriate safeguards, authorization mechanisms and oversight are in place," a spokesperson for TD said Wednesday in a statement.
RBC sent a company memo alerting employees to the decision on Tuesday. "RBC has decided to block third-party personal AI agents from direct access to authenticated RBC digital properties including online banking," a spokesperson from RBC said in a statement.
The Bank of Montreal also told Global News on Tuesday that it has taken steps to ban AI agents from accessing some of its systems. "To protect our clients, BMO does not permit AI agents to access our digital properties or execute transactions," a BMO spokesperson said in a statement.
BMO also referenced its security guidelines for protecting personal information, saying it will never make an unsolicited attempt to contact someone and ask for personal details.
The moves follow an Axios report on Oct. 22 that said some AI agents attempted to take actions that appeared to be independent of user instructions, citing people familiar with the matter.
In some cases, bank customers have shared their login ID and password with agents, with banks typically flagging and blocking those transactions, a person in the banking industry said in that reporting. Still, such transactions cannot be deemed unauthorized if credentials were shared by the customer.
BMO CEO Darryl White warned against sharing banking details with AI agents at an economic conference last week. Similar to RBC's stance, BMO, TD, CIBC and Scotiabank have all issued warnings to clients not to trust third-party AI agents with personal financial information, according to a Yahoo News report.
Global News asked Canada's five largest commercial banks on Oct. 22 if they planned to ban AI agents, as banks in the U.S. are doing, amid these reports. All banks that responded initially deferred to the Canadian Bankers Association, which said it cannot comment on the operational matters of its members.
e2gold.ca reported last week that RBC, BMO, TD and CIBC were among the institutions taking action to protect client information and prevent unauthorized transactions.
AI agents, or agentic AI, are software that acts as a personal assistant for accomplishing given tasks. A human user might give an AI agent parameters and prompts from organizing a calendar to drafting emails and making a shopping list.
That's given rise to growing questions about whether Canadian banks are prepared for the trend.
This story was written by the e2gold.ca newsroom from reporting by Global News and Yahoo News. Quotes are checked word for word against that reporting.