InvestAlso reported elsewhere2 publishers2 min readPublished
JPMorgan's CFO says customers who give AI agents their credentials may carry the loss
JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum said customers who give AI agents their banking credentials may be responsible for misuse or unauthorized transactions. He called the deposit threat from agents familiar, in a quarter when net interest income excluding markets reached $24.7 billion.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Barnum said agents could intensify competition for deposits and customer relationships, and named customers seeking higher yields and fintechs with better digital experiences as the older pressures.
- He said the bank likes its competitive hand because of decades of investment in the branch network, its value proposition and the trust customers have in it.
- Average deposits rose 8% year over year in the quarter, while average loans rose 10%.
Why it matters
- cost On Barnum's account the loss from an agent acting on shared credentials falls on the customer, so the bank's exposure to that claim depends on whether the position survives a dispute.
- constraint Blocking is the only control Barnum described, and his qualifier "to the extent that we're able" limits it to the services the bank can actually stop.
- decision The bank has not said whether it will offer sanctioned agent access or keep blocking, since it placed its own offering only at "some point".
- exposure Net interest income excluding markets is about 49% of revenue, so nearly half the top line rests on a line fed by deposit and wholesale loan balances.
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 [3]. 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" [3]. 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 [2].
The defence he described is a block. Chase has long opposed credential sharing by services that move money for customers [6]. 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" [7]. 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" [8], and he said of the effort, "We're spending a lot of time on it" [5]. 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% [10], 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 [11]. 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 [4].
What to watch
- Whether JPMorgan or a regulator publishes the contract term or rule that assigns agent-related losses to customers.
- Average deposit growth against the 8% baseline, and net interest income excluding markets against $24.7 billion, in the next quarterly results.
- Whether JPMorgan puts a product or timetable on its own agent offering, now placed only at "some point".
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence72
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap−10
- Incentives60
- Confidence68
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Revenue of $50.9 billion was up 8% year-on-year.
ReportedSupportedSource: Jeremy Barnum, Q3 2026 earnings call transcript2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [2]
On the bank's third-quarter earnings call, executives warned that customers who share their banking credentials with AI agents may be responsible if the agents misuse their information or make unauthorized transactions.
- [3]
"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," Barnum said.
ReportedSupportedSource: JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum, Q3 earnings call, via American BankerView cited source - [4]
Barnum said the rise of AI agents could intensify competition for deposits and customer relationships, but that the underlying threats, such as customers seeking higher yields and fintechs offering better digital experiences, are not new to the bank.
- [5]
"We're spending a lot of time on it," Barnum said of the AI agent threat.
- [6]
Barnum noted that some services that move money on behalf of customers rely on credential sharing, a practice Chase has long opposed.
- [7]
"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," Barnum said.
- [8]
Barnum said: "It's going to be interesting to see how the space develops and what we ourselves offer there at some point."
- [9]
Barnum said the bank likes its competitive hand in no small part because of multiple decades of investment in the branch network, the value proposition and the trust customers have in the bank.
- [10]
Average deposits increased 8% year over year in the third quarter, while average loans rose 10%.
- [11]
Net interest income excluding markets was $24.7 billion, up 6%, as a result of higher deposit balances and wholesale loan balances.
- [12]
The bank raised its full-year expense forecast to $108.6 billion from $107.5 billion last quarter, citing higher volume and revenue-related expenses.
- [13]
Net interest income excluding markets is about 49% of total revenue.
- [14]
The full-year expense forecast rose by $1.1 billion.
- [15]
The $1.1 billion rise in the expense forecast is about 1.0% of the prior $107.5 billion forecast.
- [16]
Average loan growth outpaced average deposit growth by two percentage points.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- americanbanker.comJPMorgan warns of risks to consumers who rely on AI agents
1 article · October 13, 2026
- seekingalpha.comJPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
1 article · October 13, 2026
Topics and entities
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Topics
- Bank earningsFollow
- AI agents in bankingFollow
- Credential sharing and account accessFollow
Entities
- Jeremy BarnumFollow
- JPMorgan ChaseFollow
- Jamie DimonFollow