South African banks bar third-party AI agents from customer accounts

Absa, FNB, Discovery Bank and Capitec do not allow outside AI agents into customer accounts, and Absa warns customers may bear losses if they hand over logins. FNB is building a governed framework for approved assistants with explicit consent per action.

• Absa: sharing a login with an AI agent is no different from sharing it with any third party
• Capitec bars third-party agents, including screen-scraping tools
• FNB promises explicit consent per action and authentication on its own platforms
• Discovery Bank is building payments from text or an invoice photo with client approval