Apollo Chief Economist: AI Agents Automatically Moving Deposits Could Trigger a "Slow-Motion Bank Run"

PANews reported on September 29, citing CoinDesk, that Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok warned that as AI agents begin automatically managing household funds, they may shift low-interest demand deposits into high-yield accounts, potentially triggering a "slow-motion bank run." Slok noted that the average interest rate on U.S. demand deposits is currently only about 0.1%, while platforms such as Revolut, SoFi, Varo, LendingClub, and Wealthfront offer annual deposit rates of 3.3% to 5%. If households widely use AI agents to automatically optimize cash returns, banks could lose low-cost deposits used for lending, posing risks to the financial system. Slok also mentioned that AI agents can monitor balances in real time, compare yields across institutions, and automatically move idle funds.