AI agents could spark bank runs by yanking cash from low-paying accounts: Apollo economist

AI agents could spark a new kind of bank run by automatically yanking consumers’ cash out of low-paying checking accounts and chasing higher yields, Apollo chief economist Torsten Sløk warned — the latest dire prediction about artificial intelligence in a wave of doomerism.The threat to banks could emerge as personal AI agents such as Meta’s newly launched Muse gain access to users’ financial information while taking on a growing range of tasks on their behalf, the egghead explained.“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,” Sløk wrote in a Sunday note.For consumers, the incentive seems obvious: a $10,000 balance earning 0.1% generates about $10 a year in interest, while the same amount at 5% would earn roughly $500.Sløk’s note identified 11 fintech and online accounts yielding 3.3% to 5% interest, with AdelFi topping the list at 5% and SoFi offering 4.5%.By comparison, the FDIC national averages cited in the note were 0.4% for savings accounts and just 0.1% for checking.But a potential windfall for savers could become a headache for banks if AI agents make it easier for customers to move cash out of low-paying accounts en masse — depriving lenders of the cheap deposits they rely on to fund loans.Banks benefit when customers leave cash in low-yield accounts, allowing lenders to pay depositors relatively little while lending that money out at higher rates.AI agents could threaten that model by making it easier for consumers to identify higher-yielding alternatives and shift their cash, Sløk noted.Meta launched Muse on Sept.8, trumpeting its ability to carry out tasks for users instead of just answering questions like your run-of-the-mill AI bot.Financial services company Plaid says its network gives Muse access to user-authorized data from more than 12,000 US financial i...