Agentic AI Could Force FIs To Rethink KYC, GlobalData Says
By CU Today Staff —
LONDON—The growing use of autonomous AI agents in financial services could force banks to rethink traditional Know Your Customer requirements as consumers increasingly allow technology to make payments, move money and manage accounts on their behalf, according to commentary published by GlobalData.
Nejc Korosec, head of compliance at Moneyhub, said the existing compliance framework assumes transactions originate with verified customers who are actively directing them. But agentic AI could increasingly operate for days, weeks or months under instructions established earlier, creating questions over whether an autonomous system is still acting within a customer’s intended authority.
“KYC was built to verify who a customer is, not to track whether an agent is still doing what the customer actually wants. And as customers are beginning to step back from the transactions themselves, operating through AI at a supervisory level rather than an active one, the core of KYC comes under real pressure,” Korosec said.
Korosec said the industry should extend existing compliance principles through what he called “Know Your Agent,” or KYA, under which AI agents would have identifiable credentials, defined authority and clear transaction limits.
'“KYA isn’t here to stomp all over KYC. It’s here to extend the same core principles of identity verification, authority, and accountability to a new category," he said. "But where KYC was built in response to problems that had already emerged, refined over years of regulatory experience, KYA needs to be built ahead of the curve, before the problems it's designed to prevent have had a chance to land.”
Moneyhub said its Smart Payments infrastructure, built on Variable Recurring Payments, already incorporates some of those principles through consent rules, transaction limits and human-defined restrictions. Korosec said such safeguards will become increasingly important as AI takes on more financial activity, adding, “KYA is how the industry ensures that answer is already there before the customer ever has to ask.”
Originally reported by CU Today.