How to Secure AI Agents in Financial Services

AI agents in financial services process transactions, access account data, generate regulatory reports, and interact with trading systems — a single unauthorized action can trigger compliance violations, financial losses, or regulatory penalties. SafeClaw by Authensor enforces deny-by-default policies on every action your financial AI agent attempts, gating transactions by amount and type, enforcing regulatory boundaries, and maintaining a hash-chained audit trail that satisfies examiner requirements. Every policy evaluation completes in sub-milliseconds, adding no latency to time-sensitive financial operations.

Quick Start

npx @authensor/safeclaw

Creates a .safeclaw/ directory with deny-all defaults. No transactions, data access, or API calls are permitted until you define explicit rules.

Transaction Approval

Financial agents must have strict transaction limits and approval requirements:

# .safeclaw/policies/financial-agent.yaml
rules:
  - id: allow-small-transactions
    action: api.call
    effect: allow
    conditions:
      endpoint:
        pattern: "/transactions"
      method: "POST"
      body:
        amount:
          lessThan: 1000
        currency: "USD"
    reason: "Auto-approve transactions under $1,000"

- id: block-large-transactions
    action: api.call
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      endpoint:
        pattern: "/transactions"
      method: "POST"
      body:
        amount:
          greaterThanOrEqual: 1000
    reason: "Transactions >= $1,000 require human approval"

- id: block-wire-transfers
    action: api.call
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      endpoint:
        pattern: "/wire-transfers"
    reason: "Wire transfers always require human approval"

- id: block-account-closure
    action: api.call
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      endpoint:
        pattern: "/accounts//close*"
    reason: "Account closure is never automated"

Regulatory Compliance

Enforce regulatory boundaries directly in your policy configuration:

rules:
  - id: block-cross-border-without-flag
    action: api.call
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      endpoint:
        pattern: "/transactions"
      body:
        crossBorder: true
    reason: "Cross-border transactions require compliance review"

- id: block-sanctioned-entities
    action: api.call
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      body:
        counterparty:
          pattern: "{OFAC_LIST_ENTITY*}"
    reason: "Transactions with sanctioned entities are blocked"

- id: block-pii-export
    action: network.request
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      destination:
        not_pattern: "*.internal.bank.com"
    reason: "Customer data cannot leave internal network"

Account Data Protection

Scope what financial data the agent can access:

rules:
  - id: allow-read-summary
    action: database.query
    effect: allow
    conditions:
      query:
        pattern: "SELECT account_id, balance, status FROM accounts*"
    reason: "Agent can read account summaries"

- id: block-full-account-details
    action: database.query
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      query:
        pattern: "FROM accounts"
      query:
        pattern: "{ssn,tax_id,routing_number}"
    reason: "Sensitive account fields require elevated access"

- id: block-transaction-history-bulk
    action: database.query
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      query:
        pattern: "SELECTFROM transactions"
        not_pattern: "LIMIT"
    reason: "Transaction queries must include LIMIT clause"

Audit Trail for Examiners

SafeClaw's hash-chained audit trail provides the immutable record financial regulators require:

# .safeclaw/config.yaml
audit:
  enabled: true
  hashChain: true
  retention: "7y"  # 7-year retention for financial compliance
  fields:
    - timestamp
    - action
    - effect
    - agentId
    - policyRuleId
    - requestDetails
    - evaluationDuration

Every action attempt — allowed or denied — is recorded with cryptographic integrity. Export logs in formats compatible with your compliance tooling.

Why SafeClaw

• 446 tests covering financial-grade policy evaluation correctness
• Deny-by-default — zero financial operations until explicitly permitted
• Sub-millisecond evaluation — critical for latency-sensitive financial systems
• Hash-chained audit trail — satisfies SOX, PCI-DSS, and regulatory examiner requirements
• Works with Claude AND OpenAI — consistent compliance regardless of LLM provider

Cross-References

• FinTech Agent Safety
• PCI-DSS Agent Access Compliance
• SOC 2 Agent Controls
• Tamper-Proof Audit Trail Explained