AI Agents in Banking Raise Liability and Regulation Questions, FDIC Chair Says

Financial experts warned at an Axios event that the growing use of AI agents in banking and trading poses unresolved questions about reliability, liability and regulation, even as the technology promises to streamline consumer finance. FDIC Chairman Travis Hill said advanced technology makes it "very easy for consumers to move money around to different banks," but questioned how far depositors will delegate decision-making authority to AI agents. Alpaca CEO Yoshi Yokokawa raised the liability issue directly: "Who is liable when something happens, when the agents go rogue and start doing some criminal activity, or even just do some bad trade and lose money?" He cautioned that assuming agents can generate large returns is "very dangerous." Hill said the FDIC's model risk management guidance does not currently apply to agentic or generative AI, describing the area as "very rapidly evolving." J.P. Morgan's Zach Anderson said getting a bot to make a payment is easy, but doing so "reliably and safe" remains difficult. The Oct. 20 event was sponsored by J.P. Morgan.