Apollo Warns AI Could Trigger Mass Deposit Flight From US Banks – Here’s Why

A major Wall Street firm is warning that AI money agents could trigger mass deposit flight from US banks.

Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok says Muse and similar agentic AI assistants could soon begin to automatically move household bank balances into higher-paying accounts.

Slok’s Daily Spark note asks whether an “agentic bank run” is coming if those tools go mainstream, sweeping cash into platforms paying 3.3% to 5.0% instead of the 0.1% national average on checking accounts.

His chart shows eleven fintech and online deposit products paying more than traditional banks, led by Adelfi at 5.0% and SoFi at 4.5%.

LendingClub LevelUp sits at 4.2%, with Pibank at 4.1% and Revolut Metal and Current both at 4.0%.

Fitness Bank and Varo are at 3.8%, Wealthfront at 3.6%, Revolut Standard at 3.5% and AlumniFi at 3.3%.

The FDIC national average is 0.4% for savings accounts and 0.1% for checking, according to the same chart.

Slok says the shift would hit lenders hard if households adopt it widely.

“If every household used AI agents to optimize the return on their cash balances, banks could lose a large share of the cheap deposits they rely on to make loans, which would be a problem for the entire financial system.”

Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz highlighted the warning on X.

Fascinating.

Chief Economist at Apollo: agents could cause a bank run by sweeping household cash into accounts paying 3-5% instead of the 0.1% national average, causing banks to lose a large share of their cheap deposits. pic.twitter.com/h9jo4cSXcB

— Yano ? (@JasonYanowitz) September 27, 2026

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