Barclays cuts about 5,000 jobs, big US banks bar outside AI agents from moving money, and more - Finance AI Weekly #90

In this edition, covering 19 to 24 October:

• Barclays has closed 1,000 positions and expects to cut 4,000 more by the end of the year as it increases technology and AI investment, and named its first chief AI officer.
• Citi, Bank of America and Charles Schwab have joined JPMorgan Chase in barring outside AI agents from moving money from customer accounts.
• The UK Financial Conduct Authority set out how its rules apply to firms using AI and wants significant AI failures and near misses reported.

Barclays and bank jobs

Barclays has closed 1,000 positions and expects to cut 4,000 more by the end of the year, about 5% of its global workforce, mostly in operational, support and functional roles. It appointed former group chief of staff Anita Tanna as its first chief AI officer, with immediate effect. Job cuts · Chief AI officer

Bank of America brought in about 1,000 contractors in the second quarter to help fix software weaknesses found by Anthropic's Mythos, work that contributed to more than $200 million in third quarter costs. A Kaplan UK survey found 40% of UK financial services leaders said gaps in AI skills had cost them a bid or client. Bank of America · Kaplan

Agents that move money

Citi, Bank of America and Charles Schwab have joined JPMorgan Chase in restricting outside AI agents from moving money from customer accounts, while still allowing authorised read only connections. Interactive Brokers went the other way for trading: eligible clients can now let connected AI platforms submit orders from a separately funded part of their account. Banks bar agents · Interactive Brokers

Stripe introduced Treasury for agents, which lets startups use ChatGPT, Claude and other agents to check balances, pay invoices and move funds, with human approval available before money moves. Visa, BILL and Billtrust started a US pilot in which authorized agents pay approved supplier invoices, and Mastercard opened early access to Agent Pay for Machines, which lets agents pay for digital services through the x402 protocol. Stripe · Visa pilot · Mastercard

Mural raised a $15 million Series A led by Tether for payments infrastructure for fintechs and AI agents. Sunrate will provide payments inside TourMind's AI travel platform. Binance launched AI Pro, which turns trading ideas written in plain language into strategies, and Bybit gave its assistant long term memory and authorized account actions. Mural · Sunrate · Binance · Bybit

Regulators

The UK Financial Conduct Authority explained how its existing rules apply to firms using AI, calling for clear senior accountability, human oversight, stress testing and independent checks of third party systems. It wants firms to include significant AI failures and near misses in incident reports, and asked AI providers to add clear disclaimers when their models give financial information or advice. FCA rules · Incident reports · Disclaimers

The Bank of England is considering AI related financial turmoil as a scenario for its next system wide stress test. The CFTC will hold its first Frontier Forum on 28 October on superintelligence in derivatives markets and how traders' AI agents fit its rules. The National Insurance Crime Bureau warns that AI and synthetic identities are driving auto lending fraud, with US exposure estimated at $10.4 billion. Bank of England · CFTC · NICB

Banks putting AI to work

Crédit Agricole's AI unit is working with Mistral on customer agents, process automation, cybersecurity and adapting models to the group's data. Emirates NBD will run OpenAI's GPT models on infrastructure inside the UAE. TD Bank U.S. says its TD Credit Assist drafts six sections of a commercial credit memo in under 30 minutes instead of up to three days, and Starling Bank says its AI agent completes financial crime investigations in 17 seconds. Crédit Agricole · Emirates NBD · TD Bank · Starling

LHV Bank uses a Gradient Labs agent for UK email support, Huntington Bank launched an AI operating system for small businesses built with Google Cloud, and Mastercard launched Mastercard Max, an assistant for card benefits, with C6 Bank in Brazil. The community bank association ICBA and OpenAI formed an alliance on cybersecurity, and Union Home Mortgage showed AI voice agents and document review. LHV · Huntington · Mastercard Max · ICBA · Union Home Mortgage

Funding and deals

Azim Premji's family office led a $106 million investment in Indian lender Vegafin Capital, which will build an AI lending platform for small businesses and is buying fintech Bizloan. Cognitive Credit secured $40 million led by Summit Partners, and Mexico's Kapital agreed to buy San Francisco AI startup Woz for $30 million. Vegafin · Cognitive Credit · Kapital and Woz

Slingshot Insurance raised $27 million in seed funding for embedded insurance at checkout, CapitalOS $21.9 million for spend tools for B2B platforms, BOB $5.5 million for a small business finance assistant, Gradient $4 million for an AI accounting firm for startups, Karta AI $3 million for voice AI, Plinto €2.9 million for AI financial controls and Rulen €1.8 million for tax and accounting software. Slingshot · CapitalOS · BOB · Gradient · Karta AI · Plinto · Rulen

Finance teams, tax and accounting

Thomson Reuters introduced the next generation of CoCounsel for tax, audit and accounting in the US, and Wolters Kluwer added agentic preparation of individual 1040 returns to CCH Axcess Tax, with final decisions left to tax professionals. LexisNexis launched an AI suite for disclosure and financial reporting teams working with SEC filings. CoCounsel · Wolters Kluwer · LexisNexis

Safebooks launched agents for close and SOX compliance, AppZen agents for VAT recovery, Vantage FP&A an agent for financial reporting and deal diligence, and Vertice a procure to pay capability. Mercury added payroll to its accounts, and Financial Cents and Anrok launched MCP servers that connect firm and tax data to AI assistants. H6 filed a US patent application for its invoice automation. Safebooks · AppZen · Vantage FP&A · Vertice · Mercury · Financial Cents · Anrok · H6

Markets, wealth and compliance

Capital Markets Gateway launched an MCP server that brings its equity capital markets data into AI tools, and Terminal X says its evaluation agent agreed with senior investor reviewers on 88.6% of 500 judgments. Mili's AI agents can now work with client files in Egnyte, and eMoney Advisor presented a roadmap for AI planning tools. Sigma360 launched an agent for enhanced due diligence, and Chargeflow a fraud screening model for Shopify merchants. Global Screening Services and Storm Reply launched Cloud Guardian, an AWS based tool that reviews infrastructure changes for GSS's sanctions screening platform, cutting release preparation from about two days to under four hours. CMG · Terminal X · Mili · eMoney · Sigma360 · Chargeflow · GSS

For consumers, TomoIQ launched Money Finder for conversational help with financial products and debt, and Fruition launched Studio AI, which builds financial lessons from each member's own account data. TomoIQ · Fruition

Insurance

Convr extended its AI underwriting workbench to cyber insurance, and Hyland launched prebuilt Guidewire integrations for insurance content. Vertafore launched a coach agent for AMS360 and Sagitta users, Pathwork an AI commissions platform for life and annuity brokerages, and Affordable American Insurance an analytics platform for its agency partners. SecondSight named six executives as it expands. Convr · Hyland · Vertafore · Pathwork · Agency Gauge · SecondSight