Anchorage launches Agentic Banking to give AI access to capital

Anchorage Digital launched Agentic Banking, a platform that gives artificial intelligence agents regulated access to capital while enforcing identity verification, spending limits, continuous risk monitoring and immutable audit records. The service clears payments over fiat rails, stablecoins or tokenized credentials and is aimed at institutional clients.

Agentic Banking requires identity checks, explicit permissions and auditability before transactions move to settlement. The platform enforces pre-set spending caps, runs compliance and risk checks in real time, and records transactions in a permanent audit trail so organizations can trace activity and take action if needed. Anchorage says the service will connect with both traditional payment rails and digital-asset settlement methods.

Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of Anchorage, argued that “agents cannot be granted direct access to corporate treasuries” and outlined a governance framework that enforces identity, permissions, compliance and auditability at each step. He pointed to Anchorage’s national trust charter, granted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in January 2021, as enabling the bank to offer regulated access to capital for autonomous systems. Anchorage was the first crypto-native bank to receive that federal charter.

Anchorage also announced a partnership with Google Cloud. Anchorage says Google Cloud will provide an intelligence layer to link cloud-based AI capabilities with the bank’s regulated payment and custody infrastructure.

Industry executives have described similar controls as necessary for AI agents in finance. Jody Mettler, chief operating officer at custody firm BitGo, outlined identity, permissions, policy logic and auditability as core controls for deploying AI agents. Financial-technology firm FIS this week announced a collaboration with AI developer Anthropic on a Financial Crimes AI Agent designed to compress anti-money-laundering reviews from days to minutes.

Product documentation for Agentic Banking describes a transaction lifecycle that begins with identity verification, applies compliance checks and risk signals in real time, and ends with an immutable audit trail. Payments can be executed in fiat, stablecoin or via tokenized credentials depending on client requirements and settlement arrangements. Anchorage highlights that its national trust charter allows it to hold custody and provide regulated custody-linked services for digital assets.

Regulatory and operational questions about AI agents in finance remain active. Anchorage’s product combines traditional bank controls with cryptographic and ledger-based features and is offered to enterprise customers for automating parts of treasury and payments while keeping oversight and the ability to trace or reverse activity.