Agentic Banking
Two pressures are hitting business banking at the same time, and both point the same way.
The first pressure is familiar. Direct-to-company fintechs and ERP-platform players have moved fast on the daily business banking workflow. Payments, foreign exchange, cash visibility, collections. The threat is workflow-shaped. It rarely arrives as a wholesale switch of bank accounts. It arrives one workflow at a time. The company sends international payments through a non-bank provider because it is cheaper and faster. It runs FX through a multi-currency wallet. It pulls cash flow visibility from its accounting software. Each of those workflows used to live with the bank. Most of them no longer do.
The second pressure is newer. Small and mid-sized company owners are starting to use general-purpose AI assistants to plan, compare, and act on their financial life. Independent research published in early 2026 puts monthly use of generative AI for financial tasks at roughly a quarter of consumers, and the same behaviour shows up among small-business owners. If a third-party assistant becomes the owner’s first interface for money decisions, the bank moves one click further from the relationship. It has not been switched. It has been mediated.
Both pressures call for the same response. Banks need agentic capability inside their own perimeter in 2026.
The numbers behind the erosion
Independent research published in late 2025 puts the picture in figures. Satisfaction with bank merchant services sits at 15 percent among small merchants and 22 percent among mid-sized merchants. Around 40 percent of small and mid-sized merchants are considering a shift to specialist payment technology providers. The opening is closing fast, but it has not closed yet. 66 percent of merchants still prefer their traditional bank for financial services overall.
Bank merchant satisfaction by segment from Capgemini Research Institute, World Payments Report 2026.
Three shifts make 2026 the year to act
Three shifts have converged. Each one on its own would justify movement. Together they close the window for cautious waiting.
1) Hyper-competition, quite suddenly
For decades, banks competed but could rely on dominant products and the size of their balance sheets. That posture no longer holds. Direct-to-company fintechs, big-tech entrants, brokers, and white-label banking providers are creating serious churn at most incumbent banks. The small and mid-sized business segment is the most exposed.
2) The battle for the primary channel is moving into AI
In meetings with banks worldwide over the last six months, the question has shifted. A year ago, banking leaders asked whether AI assistants were a real channel risk for their company clients. Today they ask how fast it is moving and what to do about it. Surveys put the willingness to use a third-party AI financial agent at around 57 percent of customers if their own bank does not offer one. At that point the bank is a back-end product provider rather than a relationship owner.
3) Regulatory clarity is finally arriving
Vague compliance risk is no longer a reason to wait. The EU AI Act’s risk-based framework, DORA’s operational resilience requirements, and updated model risk guidance give banks a defined path to deploy AI in regulated workflows. The question has shifted from “is this allowed” to “what controls and documentation does the supervisor expect.” And the cost of waiting is asymmetric. Independent analysis suggests early adopters of agentic AI in banking could open a gap of around four percentage points of return on tangible equity relative to slow movers.
Wait, adapt, or compete
Three responses are open to any bank. Wait and see how the AI channel develops. Adapt to being a product provider behind someone else’s AI interface. Or compete by offering the company’s AI experience inside the bank’s own brand.
Banks taking the third path need agentic capability inside their own perimeter, and they need it before the habit of using a third-party assistant becomes settled.
Three strategic postures for banks responding to the agentic shift. Framework adapted from McKinsey & Company; “How TreasurUp helps” row added by TreasurUp.
What “compete” looks like
TreasurUp calls the third path Agentic Business Banking. A composable banking platform that combines proven modules and services, an Intelligence Engine grounded in domain AI, and approval-gated agents that banks deploy under their own brand. Branded as theirs. Governed by their policies. Running on infrastructure they control.
That is the short version. The full model, the three layers, the 12-month deliveries, the agent roster, and the governance design are in the whitepaper.
Read the whitepaper
If your bank is thinking about how to bring agentic capability inside its own perimeter in 2026, this is the place to start. Download Agentic Business Banking: a 12-month roadmap for banks serving small and mid-sized companies.
