Canada's Big Banks Restrict Outside AI Agents. Wealthsimple Plans to Connect ChatGPT and Claude.

Wealthsimple will let clients connect their accounts to ChatGPT and Claude by early 2027, with approval at setup and again before any sensitive action, the Toronto fintech said.

Several of Canada’s largest banks have gone the other way and blocked outside agents. Wealthsimple is betting on a sanctioned connection instead, and a client’s own AI tool will meet a block at one provider and a gate at another.

What does Penny do?

Penny, the assistant Wealthsimple launched at a Toronto event, can cue up e-transfers, invoice payments and trades in stocks and exchange-traded funds for self-directed investors, and flags duplicate credit card charges, the company said. Nothing is completed without explicit client approval.

Penny also reads broader goals and lays out next steps instead of answering one command at a time. It stays inside the Wealthsimple platform, with no client data leaving it. The ChatGPT and Claude links are a separate plan for early 2027.

What have the banks done?

The restrictions came in late October, about a week before the launch. RBC, TD and BMO said they block outside AI agents from their online banking or digital properties, and BMO added that agents may not execute transactions. CIBC said it does not support agents opening or accessing accounts directly.

The rest stopped short of a ban. Scotiabank said it will limit third-party agents while it watches the risks, and National Bank said it is monitoring consumer agents closely.

How would the ChatGPT and Claude links work?

Wealthsimple said it does not advocate clients handing their primary login credentials to a third party, and that it wants direct connections that make credential sharing unnecessary. Clients would choose the level of access each outside tool gets.

The connections would sit on a platform that serves more than four million Canadians and holds about $169 billion in assets under administration as of September. Each client’s choice of access level would set what ChatGPT or Claude can do with the accounts that client connects.

What is still open?

Wealthsimple executives did not specify who would be responsible if an AI mistake cost a client money, according to a published report. The report said Wealthsimple points to client control over transactions and to a guarantee for clients who use passkeys.

The question for any provider before early 2027: which of its own systems would it open to ChatGPT or Claude, and on what terms of client approval?