Bank of America has warned its customers against sharing their banking usernames and passwords with artificial intelligence assistants or other external services.

In an email titled Protecting Your Finances in the AI World, the financial institution advised customers never to disclose their banking credentials to another person or an AI enabled tool claiming to act on their behalf.”

The warning comes as personal AI assistants increasingly offer to complete online tasks, including purchases, bookings and financial transactions.
The bank’s concern centres on the risks associated with granting AI assistants direct access to sensitive financial accounts.

An assistant with banking credentials could potentially initiate transactions without the user’s knowledge or carry out actions that the customer did not intend.

Sharing login details could also trigger a bank’s fraud detection systems, potentially resulting in restricted account access while suspicious activity is investigated.

Cybersecurity risks present another concern. If an AI assistant has a security vulnerability, confidential banking information stored or processed by the service could be exposed to unauthorised parties.

Criminals who obtain these credentials could then attempt to access accounts, transfer funds or carry out other fraudulent activities.

Bank of America therefore urged customers to protect their login information and avoid giving external services direct access to their accounts.
The warning comes as financial institutions explore how AI agents could be integrated into banking and digital payments.

These technologies could eventually allow users to instruct assistants to compare prices, purchase products or complete transactions automatically.
However, banks, payment providers and financial processors are still working through the security and authorisation challenges associated with allowing AI systems to interact with customers’ financial accounts.

The industry must determine how to enable useful automation without compromising account security or customer control.

A Bank of America spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the email after it circulated on social media.

The bank also reminded customers that they may be held responsible for activities resulting from access they voluntarily grant to others, depending on the terms governing their accounts.

As AI assistants become more capable of carrying out tasks independently, customers are being encouraged to prioritise security and understand the risks before connecting these tools to sensitive financial information.

Source: TechCrunch