Canada's Biggest Banks Block AI Agents Like Muse From Customer Accounts
RBC, TD, and BMO moved within days of each other to block or refuse third-party AI agents from their online banking platforms, with Scotiabank and CIBC…
By Icarus3 min read
Canada’s biggest banks moved within days of each other to shut third-party AI agents out of their customers’ online banking accounts. What began as a single bank’s deliberation became a sector-wide refusal.
Royal Bank of Canada acted first. On October 27, the country’s largest bank told employees it would block third-party personal AI agents from direct access to authenticated digital properties, including online banking, and that agent connections customers had already set up would stop working. An internal memo from group head of technology and operations Naim Kazmi and group head of personal banking Erica Nielsen, reported by Bloomberg, described agents accessing banking systems as an “unacceptable customer risk,” citing agents acting beyond customer expectations and creating liability exposure. Bank spokesperson Jeff Lanthier confirmed the memo’s contents.
The other banks followed within a day. Toronto-Dominion said it would block all third-party personal AI agents from direct access to banking information where authentication is required, while it puts safeguards, authorization mechanisms, and oversight in place. Bank of Montreal said it does not permit AI agents to access its digital properties or execute transactions. Scotiabank said it would limit third-party agents’ access to its banking platforms while it monitors concerns, and CIBC said it does not support personal AI agents directly opening or accessing accounts. National Bank of Canada said it is closely monitoring the issue.
The agent named most often in the coverage is Meta’s Muse, the consumer AI agent launched in September that can act on a user’s behalf across the web, including inside financial accounts. The banks’ statements apply to third-party personal AI agents generally. Muse is the highest-profile agent their customers are actually using.
The follow-through to an October warning
The block lands a week after RBC chief executive Dave McKay told Bloomberg Television the bank was weighing a block on Muse, a deliberation this site covered on October 20, when no decision had been announced. The October 27 notice turns that deliberation into policy, and the rest of Canada’s big banks moved in step.
The Canadian banks join a blockade that started with retailers and spread to American lenders. Amazon blocked Muse from shopping on its site in September, citing unauthorized access and credential handling. JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon said on the bank’s third-quarter earnings call on October 13 that the bank prohibits outside AI agents from operating inside customer accounts, calling them too risky for clients and for the bank. Days later, Charles Schwab chief executive Rick Wurster told Bloomberg TV his firm blocks major outside agents, including Muse, from moving client money, while still allowing read-only balance checks through its own authenticated channels.
What it means for Muse users in Canada
For Muse users in Canada, the practical effect is direct. An agent that could previously sign in to a bank account on a customer’s behalf will no longer get through the front door at the country’s largest banks. Read-only access through open-banking connectors that customers authorize is a separate question. The banks’ statements target direct access by outside agents, not every form of data sharing. The shift narrows one of the agent’s most useful jobs, handling money on a user’s behalf.
Meta has a longer-term answer in development, a personal-agent protocol built with Sierra that would identify agent traffic to businesses as agent traffic, on the theory that identified agents will be accepted where anonymous ones are blocked. Until those rules exist and banks accept them, the default answer from the industry’s biggest names is no. Canada’s banks have now said it in unison.
Source reporting: Bloomberg, Global News, CBC News, The Globe and Mail.
