Apollo Chief Economist: AI Agents Could Cause a 'Slow-Motion Bank Run'

PANews, September 29, according to CoinDesk, Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok warned that as AI agents begin to automatically manage household funds, low-interest demand deposits may be transferred to high-yield accounts, triggering a "slow-motion bank run." Slok said that the current average interest rate on demand deposits in the United States is only about 0.1%, while the annual interest rates on deposits on platforms such as Revolut, SoFi, Varo, LendingClub and Wealthfront can reach 3.3% to 5%. If AI agents are widely used by households to automatically optimize cash returns, banks could lose low-cost deposits used to issue loans and pose risks to the financial system. Slok also mentioned that AI agents can monitor balances in real time, compare the rates of return of different institutions, and automatically transfer idle funds.