The brave new world of Artificial Intelligence is shaking up another sector of the U.S. economy: Banking.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is now raising serious concerns about a disturbing new report revealed that AI agents are accessing Americans' bank accounts, reportedly attempting to take actions their owners never authorized.
And the Republican governor is warning that the financial consequences could be catastrophic.
"Imagine a rogue AI agent liquidating your bank account and investment portfolio," DeSantis wrote on X.
Imagine a rogue AI agent liquidating your bank account and investment portfolio. If you are the only victim, I suppose you could get made whole by the AI company responsible. If rogue agents liquidate hundreds of billions across millions of accounts, the AI company would go bankrupt and you wouldn’t get made whole. Imposing criminal liability on AI executives might help mitigate it at the front end, but once the crime is complete and you lose everything criminal responsibility will be necessary but completely insufficient.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) October 22, 2026
"If you are the only victim, I suppose you could get made whole by the AI company responsible. If rogue agents liquidate hundreds of billions across millions of accounts, the AI company would go bankrupt and you wouldn’t get made whole."
The governor also raised the possibility of holding technology executives criminally responsible, but questioned whether that would be enough.
"Imposing criminal liability on AI executives might help mitigate it at the front end, but once the crime is complete and you lose everything criminal responsibility will be necessary but completely insufficient."
DeSantis was reacting to an Axios report revealing that major financial institutions have detected unapproved third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts.
According to the report, banks including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are scrambling to address the security risks posed by increasingly autonomous AI systems.
Some agents have reportedly attempted actions that appeared to go beyond their users' instructions.
The problem is complex because customers sometimes voluntarily provide AI assistants with their banking credentials. That can allow automated programs to access financial information, initiate transactions or interact with banking systems in ways financial institutions never intended.
Banking executives appear to have trouble distinguishing human customers from AI agents, and it is not always clear that agents are acting with their owners' permission.
Morgan Stanley has begun blocking third-party agents, while JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi have also imposed restrictions.
We can breathe a sigh of relief, for now. Critically, the report does not establish that rogue AI agents have begun draining Americans' accounts. Morgan Stanley said it had not observed rogue agents accessing its platforms.
But the risks have become serious enough that banks are preparing contingency plans for potential widespread disruptions, including procedures to restore customer access if something goes wrong.
And DeSantis has been sounding the alarm about AI regulation for some time.
In December 2025, the governor proposed an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights aimed at protecting Floridians from emerging technological risks.
His proposal included restrictions on the sale and sharing of personal information, consumer notification requirements for AI chatbots, protections against unauthorized use of a person's identity, and parental controls.
It also sought to prevent insurance companies from using AI as the sole basis for denying claims.
"Today, I proposed new legislation on artificial intelligence and AI data centers to protect Floridians' privacy, security, and quality of life," DeSantis said at the time.
The proposed legislation passed the Florida Senate 35-2 in March but failed to advance through the state House.
DeSantis has also challenged efforts to limit state-level AI regulation, arguing that governments must retain the ability to protect consumers rather than simply defer to tech companies.
The Florida governor is warning that the punishment that tech companies may receive for the financial damage they do may be nowhere near enough.
And indeed, as we have seen from Big Tech doomerism over the coming “AI-pocalypse,” the punishment may be exactly what the financial elites want to happen.
Imagine, if we might borrow DeSantis’ line, that AI agents wreak havoc in our banking system to the extent that trillions of dollars “vanish” from accounts.
One contingency to making those customers whole again is a more secure banking system.
Central bank digital currency (CBDCs) come to the rescue. According to the Atlantic Council, 146 countries and currency unions representing over 98% of global GDP are exploring a CBDC, with 77 countries in the advanced phase of exploration, including 41 active pilot projects worldwide.
What better way to “nudge” people toward central banking, the government control over our money (and the social credit scores that would surely follow), than to digitally “disappear” people’s savings?
This is just a hypothetical scenario, of course. Governments would never stoop so low as to wipe out people’s bank accounts to get control over the money supply.
Whether or not the central bank digital currency schemes are simply pragmatic, it is best we start conducting thought-exercises about worst-case scenarios now, so that we can implement level-headed protections for banking consumers.
It appears that Governor Ron DeSantis is doing just that.
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