JPMorgan's CFO says customers who give AI agents their credentials may carry the loss

Barnum was explicit about who pays first. "It's important that customers understand that if they give up their credentials to the agent, and the agent does something that they don't want, that's going to be on them, and that's sort of not an ideal state of things," he said ^[2]. The second clause is the candid one (or rather, the more interesting one): the finance chief states the allocation and concedes in the same sentence that it is "not an ideal state of things" ^[2]. American Banker's account of the call does not cite the contract term or regulation behind the position, so for now it is a statement made to investors ^[1].

The defence he described is a block. Chase has long opposed credential sharing by services that move money for customers ^[3]. Barnum said, "It's not secure, and so to the extent that we're able to block those, we are blocking them to protect customers and protect ourselves" ^[4]. The qualifier is the interesting part, because it implies some such services get through.

On the bank's own product, Barnum said it will be "interesting to see how the space develops and what we ourselves offer there at some point" ^[7], and he said of the effort, "We're spending a lot of time on it" ^[6]. The bank raised its full-year expense forecast to $108.6 billion from $107.5 billion, a rise of $1.1 billion or about 1.0% ^[12][14][15], and cited higher volume and revenue-related expenses ^[12].

In our view the deposit numbers justify the calm for now. Average deposits grew 8% and average loans 10% ^[11], so loans outran deposits by two points ^[16], and net interest income excluding markets rose 6% to $24.7 billion on higher deposit and wholesale loan balances ^[9]. If agents start moving balances toward higher yields, average deposit growth should weaken first and that income line should stall. We would call the calm wrong if the 8% fades and the $24.7 billion stops growing.

That view can fail in several ways. A regulator or court could put unauthorized agent transactions back on the bank, and Barnum's remark would then have been an opening position. JPMorgan could ship its own agent, which would narrow the credential problem to outside services. Or agents could move yield-seeking money faster than the higher-yield offers and fintech apps Barnum said are not new threats ^[5].