Wealthsimple to let clients share financial data with ChatGPT and Claude AI agents

TORONTO · Wealthsimple Financial Corp. is launching an artificial intelligence assistant and will allow clients to share their financial data with third-party AI agents ChatGPT and Claude. The move comes as some of the world's largest banks restrict access to such agents over security concerns. Starting in early 2027, Wealthsimple clients will be able to connect their accounts to ChatGPT or Claude and determine the level of access granted. The access will require client approval, with more critical actions needing additional security checks.

Wealthsimple senior product director Sam Newman-Bremang said the decision responds to customer demand. "Our clients are asking to use those third-party agents," Newman-Bremang said in an interview. "It's a deliberate process. It's not a free-for-all." The company is in talks with other AI and technology firms, including Meta and Spear Street Technology's Instinct, to see if their systems meet its security requirements. AI agents are semi-autonomous entities that can access bank accounts and transaction history to analyze spending and provide recommendations.

Last month, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal and Toronto-Dominion Bank said they had blocked third-party AI agents from accessing their digital properties. Major U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley had previously blocked or limited such access. Wealthsimple shares similar security concerns and warns customers against providing agents with financial data through unsecure connections. "Canadians, we agree with the big banks, should not be doing this. They're giving them their ID, their password. We don't believe that that is the right way to do it," Newman-Bremang said.

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The company said its own AI assistant, named Penny, can manage money and trading tasks and analyze a client's portfolio to identify goals. A client could instruct Penny to top up their RRSP by a certain date, and the agent would create a plan. Clients must opt in to use Penny, which requires confirmation before moving money or executing trades. Customer data remains within the AI assistant and does not leave Wealthsimple's platform. "When you look at the Canadian consumer base, the reality is there's different levels of comfortability. There is a population that's really excited to start using these tools with their financial data," Wealthsimple director of software development Jordan Deutsch said.

Deutsch added that Wealthsimple has built an audit trail to track how data is shared within the assistant. "We understand exactly what data has been accessed by the assistant, what data it's using when it's in conversation, and we have a trail of all of that over time." Newman-Bremang noted the company's clientele is more tech-savvy. "We wanted to build a secure, trusted way for them to take advantage of some of the abilities to have conversations about their finances, but in a secure way." The launch of AI tools in financial services follows other tech expansions, such as Google's AI shopping tool launched in Canada last year.

With files from The Globe and Mail