Anthropic has introduced a new feature that allows its AI assistant Claude to analyze data from users’ linked bank accounts. It’s called Personal Finance and allows you to control your expenses, consult your balances and obtain summaries without having to open the individual bank applications.
To use this function, however, you must allow services outside the bank to access your financial information. Banking data can in fact reveal details of your private life and, if stolen, be used for fraudulent purposes. The issue therefore concerns both privacy and security, and not only affects Claude, but also other chatbots.
How Personal Finance works and what data Claude can read
Unveiled on November 5, 2026, the feature is rolling out in the US, in beta, to Pro, Max and Ultra subscribers. It is currently not available in Italy. In addition to current accounts, it allows you to link credit cards and loan and investment reports. Users can ask which subscriptions are active, how expenses have changed in recent months, or how much money is left after recurring payments. Claude can provide graphs and summaries, while a dedicated screen collects information from linked reports.
The connection takes place through Plaid, a platform that allows applications to communicate with financial institutions. The user selects the bank, authenticates and chooses which accounts to share. According to Anthropic, Claude does not ask or display the home banking password: the procedure is managed by Plaid, which, depending on the institution, can use authorization systems that do not require memorizing the credentials or, in some cases, retain them.
Once consent has been obtained, the chatbot can consult the name of the bank and the relationships, their type, the last four identifying digits, the balances and any credit limits. It can also read up to 24 months of transactions, including amounts, dates, merchants, categories and descriptions of transactions. For loans and investments, access concerns balances and limits, not the details of the securities held, rates or contractual conditions.
Access is read-only, Personal Finance does not allow Claude to make transfers, pay bills or invest money. Responses, however, may contain errors. A balance may not be updated, or the same account, if linked twice, may be counted twice in totals. This is why Anthropic recommends verifying important figures through the app or your bank statement.
What are the privacy risks and possible scams
The balance indicates how much money is available, but the payment history can reveal much more, from purchasing habits to movements and economic relationships with other people. Some operations may even suggest confidential matters, such as medical visits or donations to certain organizations, although these inferences are not always reliable.
The problem does not only concern a possible theft, but it is also important to know who processes the data, for what purposes and for how long they keep it. In the case of Personal Finance, Anthropic, Plaid and the suppliers who host the service are involved.
According to Anthropic, conversations in the Personal Finance area are not used to train AI models. Outside of this section, your account privacy settings apply. Replies may remain in your history according to the platform’s retention rules.
Once the accounts have been linked, Claude can also consult them in normal chats without asking permission every time. However, the user can deactivate the Plaid connector or set a confirmation before each login. You should also pay attention to links in shared conversations, through which other people may view financial details. Revoking authorization prevents new consultations, but does not automatically delete responses or documents already generated.
If this information falls into the wrong hands, there could also be economic consequences. Knowing the bank used by a person or their recent expenditure, for example, would help build more credible false assistance messages. However, these are hypothetical scenarios, not documented frauds related to Claude’s new function.
The TeamSystem case helps to understand the problem. The theft of IBAN and accounting data raised fears of possible targeted scams. These elements alone are not enough to withdraw money, but could be used to convince a victim to make fraudulent payments or communicate their credentials. Scams of this type can exploit phishing, sometimes accompanied by spoofing, which allows the sender’s identity to be masked.
Not just Claude: other AIs and how to protect their data
In the United States, ChatGPT also offers Finances, a function introduced by OpenAI in May 2026 and subsequently extended to Free, Go, Plus and Pro users. Like Claude, it allows you to connect accounts via Plaid and obtain information on balances, expenses, subscriptions and investments, without being able to make payments or money transfers.
One difference concerns the treatment of content: for ChatGPT Finances the privacy settings chosen by the user apply, while Anthropic excludes conversations carried out in the Personal Finance area from training. According to OpenAI, after logging out, synced banking data is deleted from its systems within 30 days. Chats and any financial memories, which may contain savings goals or other personal information, must instead be managed separately.
With Gemini and other chatbots, you can also manually upload a PDF bank statement or spreadsheet and ask AI to analyze it. In this case, you do not necessarily authorize continued access to the bank, but you still share a document containing personal financial information. It is therefore important to know the conditions established by the service for their use and storage.
Sharing banking information with external applications, however, was not born with AI. Services already exist in Europe open banking which allow you to consult multiple accounts from a single interface, with the owner’s consent. Account information providers are subject to the PSD2 directive and, as the Bank of Italy reminds us, must be authorized to operate.
The first measure to protect your privacy is to share only the necessary information. To analyze an expense category, for example, a partial statement may be enough, without names, identifying numbers or superfluous details. Before authorizing a service to consult your account, it is also advisable to know which reports will be included, the access limits and how to revoke consent.
It is also advisable to protect your chatbot account with two-factor authentication and periodically review the permissions granted. Instead, home banking passwords and security codes must never be communicated to the chatbot. When the service is no longer needed, it is best to disconnect the banking relationships and delete any chats or documents containing economic data.
