Will UK banks block AI agents that log in as you?

American and Canadian banks are blocking AI agents that sign in to your online banking with your own password, such as Meta's Muse, and not ChatGPT or Claude as such. If you are wondering whether Barclays, Monzo or NatWest will follow, the UK is on a different road: British banks already share your data through open banking, with your approval, and Era builds on that road so that every assistant can read your UK accounts without ever touching your bank login.

What have American and Canadian banks actually done?

In the United States and Canada, several large banks have started blocking or limiting AI agents that sign in to a customer's online banking on their behalf, using the customer's own password. Agents such as Meta's Muse and Instinct are the ones in the news. On 28 October 2026 RBC, TD, BMO, CIBC and Scotiabank were reported to be among the Canadian banks acting, JPMorgan Chase has said it refuses any outside agent that signs in with a customer's banking credentials, and Wells Fargo has added terms, from 24 November 2026, that keep you liable for any AI agent you authorise until you prove you revoked it.

ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity work differently: in the United States they connect to banks through authorised Plaid connectors, read-only, and their own finance features are for US banks only. Read as a sign of where banking is heading, these moves say that a bank wants to know who is acting for a customer. The same instinct is why a UK bank asks you to approve a connection in its own app. Banks are not turning against assistants; they are asking for a proper, accountable way in, and that is the part Era provides.

Is the same coming for Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC and Monzo?

The most likely UK answer is a framework rather than a block. In October 2026 the Financial Conduct Authority said it plans to work with industry on a trusted framework for agentic finance, with clear approaches to agent identity, delegated authority and accountability, and its Smart Data Accelerator is moving into practical testing of open finance infrastructure.

That is a regulator planning a place for assistants in your banking, which is a very different thing from planning to keep them out. Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC, Monzo, Starling and Revolut all already offer open banking, so the route an assistant needs is built and in daily use.

Why does a block on agents that log in as you not touch you?

Assistants that sign in to your bank with your password are the ones banks find hard to tell apart from fraud. Era works the other way round. You link each bank once through open banking, approve the connection in your bank's own app, and from then on every assistant talks to Era, never to your bank.

Because your bank only ever sees Era's approved connection, a decision about agents that log in as you does not change what you can see in Claude, ChatGPT or any other assistant. You keep the same balances, the same history and the same memory, and you can switch assistants whenever you like.

What does connecting your UK banks to Era give you?

Era already connects accounts across the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and 40+ countries in all, so your current account, savings pots, credit cards and investments can sit in one place. Every assistant you use connects to that one hub, and what you tell one of them is remembered by the others.

You can share a space with a partner or housemates so that bills and shared spending sit side by side, drop in statements and payslips and have them read and filed for you, and see a live view of your financial health with the analysis behind each figure. If a bank cannot be linked directly, you can bring its transactions in from a statement.

Which assistants can use it?

Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Cursor and any other assistant that supports MCP can connect to Era in a few taps. You add Era to the assistant once, approve it, and from then on the assistant can answer questions about your balances, spending and financial health, and it remembers what you tell it.

Start with the guide to connecting Claude to your bank account or the one for connecting ChatGPT, and each takes about five minutes. If you are wondering what to ask once you are connected, here are some questions to try. For the full picture of how access is controlled, including how to disconnect an assistant at any time, read how Era protects your financial data.

Where does my own bank fit in?

Your own bank may have built an assistant of its own, and it is worth using, but it sees only that bank. A general assistant connected through Era sees every account you choose to add, from a Monzo current account to a workplace pension, so the two work well side by side and neither needs the other to change.

We have written a separate page on which UK banks have an MCP server, covering Monzo, Revolut, Starling and the rest. If your first worry is safety, is it safe to connect your UK bank to ChatGPT or Claude answers it in full.