Brett King on Bank 5.0 and the Rise of AI Agents

Brett King, author of Bank 5.0, returns to Banking Transformed to explain why he believes the banking system of the future will be built for AI agents before it is built for people. He and Jim Marous start with the restrictions JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi have placed on agent access to customer accounts, and why Brett sees them as the earliest stage of a larger change. Jim adds what he heard at Sibos and Money20/20, where the talk moved from know your customer to know your agent.

Brett describes how a customer’s agent will research credit, ask only for amount, duration, monthly payment, cost and penalties, and eventually take over the decision. Jim asks whether a primary financial institution can exist once the customer delegates the choice. Brett says the primary relationship will belong to the agent, which pushes cost-to-income ratio, with Nubank and WeBank as the benchmarks, ahead of deposit and loan margin as the measure that matters.

The conversation then turns to know-your-agent identity, the regulatory infrastructure Brett proposes in the book, and why he ranks the US well behind Singapore and China on readiness. Jim asks who is furthest ahead and furthest behind among the partners that have to work together. Brett closes with his prediction that banks unable to connect to the new infrastructure will be acquired by the mid-2030s, and with how a personal AI money coach could widen access to financial education.

About Brett King: Brett is a futurist, the founder of Moven and the author of Bank 5.0 and the Bank X.0 series. He hosts Breaking Banks and The Futurists.

Hosted by Jim Marous. Subscribe to Banking Transformed for new episodes multiple times each week.