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

AI agents such as Meta’s Muse could soon pull cash out of bank accounts paying 0.1% and into accounts paying up to 5%, Apollo chief economist Torsten Sløk warned on Sunday.

AI agents are assistants that can act for a user, not just answer questions. Sløk says that at scale, the shift could strip banks of the cheap deposits they lend out.

How Much a 0.1% Bank Account Costs You

On a $10,000 balance, a 0.1% checking account earns about $10 a year. At 5%, the same money earns about $500.

Sløk’s note lists 11 fintech and online accounts paying between 3.3% and 5%. Adelfi tops the chart at 5%, followed by SoFi at 4.5%. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) national averages it cites are 0.4% for savings and 0.1% for checking.

Banks pay savers little and lend the money out at higher rates. That difference is a core source of their profit.

“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 launched Muse on September 8. Plaid, the data firm that connects it to more than 12,000 US financial institutions and apps, says users can see balances, transactions, investments, and mortgage details through the agent.

Plaid’s announcement does not say Muse can move money between accounts. Sløk describes the sweep as something that “could soon” happen, and his warning rests on every household using such agents.

Interest in the agent is climbing. On Thursday, JPMorgan raised its Meta target and said Muse could become the most widely used consumer AI app since ChatGPT.

Market Watchers Say Savers Are Already Moving Cash

Mike Zaccardi, a chartered financial analyst, says he already keeps his own cash in BOXX, an exchange-traded fund that aims to earn returns close 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, said AI and crypto are both coming for the traditional banking model. He urged politicians to embrace the change rather than fight it.

Washington is already fighting over who gets to pay savers. Stablecoin yield is one of the issues in the push to revive the Clarity Act crypto bill, which failed a Senate procedural vote on September 15.

Sløk’s note does not estimate how much cash could move, or how fast.

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