Investment News: Schwab Blocking AI
Investment News published, "Schwab CEO says firm is blocking rogue AI agents from client accounts." They state, "Charles Schwab is blocking AI agents that try to log in to client accounts on clients' behalf, president and CEO Rick Wurster told advisors at Schwab IMPACT 2026 in Boston.... The move puts Schwab alongside JPMorgan Chase and other banks in shutting out third-party agents." They quote Wurster's keynote, "The first thing we are doing is we are keeping rogue agents from being able to log in on the client's behalf, we block that activity using technology. When you look on a weekly basis, it's 30, 40, 50 times that we might be seeing a particular AI agent come to our sites and try to log in, and we are blocking it." The piece says, "JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said on the bank's Oct. 13 earnings call that it won't let outside agents operate inside customer accounts, CNBC reported, citing Meta's Muse and Instinct as examples.... Citigroup and Bank of America have imposed similar limits, the Financial Times reported. 'The good news that we've found actually is it doesn't seem that a lot of clients have a lot of interest in giving up their credentials and their financial experience to these agents,' Wurster said at IMPACT." Investment News writes, "Fear of Muse, unveiled by Meta in September, sent shares of Schwab and LPL Financial down more than 6% in a single session.... Wurster previously disclosed in an Oct. 15 earnings call that Schwab was blocking outside AI agents trying to access client accounts. 'We are blocking unauthorized agents who try to log in on behalf of clients. It is not a safe way for our clients to access Schwab, and we are blocking it to protect clients and our firm,' he said on the call." For more on AI and Cash Sweeps, see our recent Crane Data News stories: "NBER Paper on Institutional Money Funds with AI 'When Cash Wakes Up'" (10/29/26), "Schwab Comments on Sweeps, Cash, AI on Q3'26 Call; Wells, BlackRock" (10/19/26), "JP Morgan Chase Q3 Earnings Call Discusses AI Agents and Cash, Deposits" (10/14/26), "WSJ Discusses AI's Impact on Brokerage Sweeps and Bank Cash Sorting" (9/29/26), "Money Funds Low Profile on Q2 Earnings Call Radar; Schwab, Northern" (7/23/26), "Barron's Writes Again on Sweeps and AI; Crane 100 MF Index Up to 3.44%" (6/2/26), "LPL Sees No AI Risk of Cash Sorting" (5/4/26), "Raymond James Call Responds to 'Agentic AI Cash Sweep Optimization'" (4/24/26), "Barron's on Schwab AI Sweeps Worries" (4/21/26), "Earnings: JP Morgan Talks AI Cash Allocation Tool; BNY on Tokenization" (4/20/26), "Schwab Says AI a Tailwind, Not a Threat to Cash Sweeps on Q1 Update" (4/17) and "Morgan Stanley Q1 Call: AI & Sweeps" (4/16).
