Financial agents could turn rational cash management into a bank run

What's this about?

Apollo's chief economist describes a future in which personal-finance agents automatically move idle cash from near-zero-interest bank deposits to higher-yield accounts. Individually sensible actions could happen together and rapidly drain banks' cheap funding.

What exactly is an agentic bank run?

A traditional bank run spreads through fear and queues of depositors. An agentic version could be triggered by software optimising yield for millions of people at once, without panic, communication or explicit collusion.

What's the community saying?

1. Commenters compare it with algorithmic trading: individually optimal automation can destabilise the shared system.
2. Others note deposit switching is slower and more regulated than a securities flash crash, so the speed assumptions matter.
3. The broader worry is that many institutions rely on consumer inattention and transaction friction that agents may remove.