The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a comprehensive initiative to explore AI-driven digital euro payments, with applications opening on September 28 for its latest digital euro innovation platform. According to AMBCrypto, the ECB is encouraging fintech companies and payment firms to participate in a six-month program running from January to June 2027. The initiative is split into two phases - the first focusing on building prototypes for digital receipts, multi-party payments, and conditional transactions, while the second will feature workshops on AI-driven payments, micropayments, and machine-to-machine transactions without human intervention. Some participants will be selected to present at the ECB's headquarters in Frankfurt, with all developments aimed at improving the digital euro's future capabilities.
According to reports from Apollo, chief economist Torsten Sløk warns that AI agents like Meta's Muse could fundamentally disrupt traditional banking by moving cash from low-yield accounts into high-interest alternatives. The warning centers on AI assistants that can act for users rather than just answering questions, potentially creating what Sløk describes as an 'agentic bank run' that could strip banks of their cheap deposit base. As reported by Apollo, this shift could be particularly problematic for the entire financial system if every household uses such agents to optimize their cash balances. Sløk, who is a partner at private-equity giant Apollo Global managing about $1 trillion in assets, warns that if households widely use agentic AI to make investments, it could put banks at risk, posing a threat to the broader financial system.
The financial implications are substantial for savers and banks alike. According to Apollo's analysis, a $10,000 balance in a 0.1% checking account earns approximately $10 annually, while the same amount in a 5% account would generate about $500 in interest. The report cites 11 fintech and online accounts paying between 3.3% and 5%, with Adelfi leading at 5% and SoFi at 4.5%. This compares to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's national averages of 0.4% for savings and 0.1% for checking accounts. Banks currently rely on this deposit spread as a core source of profitability, and Sløk argues that if every household used AI agents to optimize their cash balances, banks could lose a large share of the cheap deposits they rely on to make loans.
As reported by Apollo, Meta launched Muse on September 8, with data firm Plaid connecting it to more than 12,000 US financial institutions and apps. According to Plaid's announcement, users can view balances, transactions, investments, and mortgage details through the agent. However, Plaid does not indicate that Muse currently has the capability to move money between accounts. Interest in the agent is growing, with JPMorgan raising its Meta target and suggesting Muse could become the most widely used consumer AI app since ChatGPT. The launch comes as crypto payment infrastructure is already supporting agentic finance, with Coinbase's x402 protocol processing approximately 188 million to over 205 million cumulative transactions with around 69,000 active agents.
The agentic AI market is experiencing rapid growth, with estimates varying widely across industry reports. Mordor Intelligence projects the agentic AI in financial services market at $7.78 billion in 2026 and $43.52 billion by 2031, while MarketsandMarkets sizes the narrower AI agents segment at about $845 million in 2025. The infrastructure supporting these agents is expanding rapidly, with Cloudflare, Google, Visa, Mastercard, AWS, Circle, and Stripe joining the x402 Foundation, which the Linux Foundation now governs. Nate Geraci, co-founder of the ETF Institute, has previously warned that both AI and crypto are targeting the traditional banking model, urging politicians to embrace change rather than fight it.
