Apollo Warns AI Agents May Spark Agentic Bank Runs

Torsten Slok, the chief economist at Apollo, describes a risk where automated assistants transfer household cash from 0.1% checking accounts into fintech options paying up to 5%. This rapid migration of funds would deplete traditional banks of the low-cost deposits they rely on for lending, a phenomenon Slok calls an "agentic bank run."

The potential for instability arises as AI tools are deployed to optimize user yields in real-time, far faster than human customers would manually move their money. This automation could accelerate the drainage of capital from legacy banking institutions toward higher-yielding digital platforms.