At Money20/20, Citi’s Naveed Anwar (global head of AI, digital and data platforms, services) said the bank will not rush external AI agent connectivity: “This is not one of those places” to move fast.
Citi blocked agentic access beyond legacy open-banking read-only; no third parties connect agentically today. Proposed “know your agent” (KYA) guardrails akin to KYC.
Aligns with JPMorgan, BofA, Morgan Stanley, Schwab blocking customer agents (e.g. Meta Muse); Fifth Third also blocks agent-initiated transactions. PNC CEO Bill Demchak said banks will not allow agents to transact without humans in the loop.
Services unit: 15 AI use cases live, ~60 more rolling out Q4–Q1; pilots include AI-driven corporate account self-initiation on CitiDirect (weeks to minutes for onboarding docs). Embedded banking in SAP/Oracle ERP; natural-language client chat replacing case tickets.
Mohit Narula (global head digital platforms, services): clients want data access on their terms as AI changes predefined journeys.