Humanoid robot is on display during 2023 World Robot Conference at Beijing Etrong International Exhibition & Convention Center on August 19, 2023 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Zhan Min/VCG via Getty Images)
VCG via Getty Images
As I wrote back in 2019, and McKinsey wrote back in August, once AI-powered software agents (that is, bots) start making more sophisticated financial decisions on behalf of customers, we will see a reshaping of banking that will affect billions of dollars in revenue. My bumper sticker version of future agentic finance landscape is quite straightforward: The AI revolution isn’t banks getting AI, it is customers getting AI.
Agentic Finance Is Inevitable
This has huge implications for the banking sector. The former Standard Chartered Group Chief Data Officer Shameek Kundu said in the Citi GPS’ report on “AI in Finance: Bot, Bank & Beyond” that “the biggest new thing will be the growth of non-human customers” and I could not agree more, which is why I have been looking at the implications for some time. In particular, I have become fascinated to see how banks and other financial services organisations (who sell very commoditised products such as checking and savings accounts) will adjust to acquiring agent customers who do not care about the bank Superbowl ads or which sports teams it sponsors.
When my AI-controlled smart wallet uses open banking data and decides that I need a different savings account or refinance my car loan, how will my network of bot advisors decide which provider to use? After all, savings accounts and car loans are boring, there are lots of them to choose from and even if I did take the time to read the terms and conditions I wouldn’t understand them. When it comes down to it, I don’t really want to be in the loop on these because I’ve got better things to do. Bot’s don’t/
Now one rather obvious thing that bots will base their decisions on will be price, so from a strategic perspective it seems to me that banks will likely need to compete much more sharply on price to retain clients’ wallet share. Bots can compare multiple prices simultaneously, so being the cheapest will likely always be a significant factor. One strategic response from institutions could therefore be to adopt an execution-focused strategy focused on operational efficiency. They could cut out the money wasted on TV advertisements that bots don’t look at and use the modern to modernise and revitalise their IT infrastructure, thereby enabling them to compete on volume and win those deals that are purely based on price.
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In this kind of environment, as you might easily imagine, all prices will rapidly fall to the lowest level and this has very significant implications on the business models of commercial banks and others. In fact McKinsey’s new Global Annual Banking Review for 2025 says that $23 trillion of the $70 trillion in the consumer banking sector are held in zero interest accounts. Unless banks adapt their offerings, this could amount to a loss of 9% to the bottom line, which would push average returns for banks below the cost of capital.
AI has a role to play in revitalising the banks infrastructure, of course, and this will help to reduce costs (McKinsey think this might mean initial savings of between 15% and 20% of operating costs) but of course those benefit will soon be competed away. This means that banks will need to find other competitive advantages. But what could these be?
In common with many other industry observers, I think that one area to focus on is digital identity. For commercial banks, they have an inbuilt advantage. As Kirsty Rutter, the Fintech Investment Director at Lloyds Banking Group in the U.K., said “our digital identity has become our most valuable digital asset”. Numerous fintech companies have emerged working to tackle different aspects of the identity challenges across identification, authentication and authorisation but there is still way to go to get a comprehensive infrastructure in place to provide the essential elements of the trust framework.
When you look at the rapid evolution of agentic finance and agentic commerce, it is clear that the platforms and protools are outpacing the trust frameworks needed to build real-world products and services. In another of their recent reports, McKinsey pointed in this direction and said that what they label “credentialling and identity” is the first of their key control points in the agentic economy because agents need secure, user-granted permission before they can initiate transactions across multiple institutions. Therefore, as they point out, organisations that already manage high-trust credentials start with a clear advantage. They go on to highlight some success factors: zero-trust architectures that never assume persistent access, dynamic consent via standardized protocols (for example, OAuth2/OpenID Connect) and continuous audit trails.
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Agentic Finance As Dark Energy
Financial institutions should be looking at the opportunities here as a way of staying relevant, as a way for remaining relevants to transactions that pass unnoticed through the current financial systems, a kind of financial dark energy made of wallets and stablecoins, AP2 and x402, exchanging value without ever touching banks and banking networks. All of those transactions wll need varying kinds of trust and one of the reasons why I am so bullish about the transition to agentic finance is precisely because of the transition from antiquated security theatre based on passwords, pictures of buses and emailing photos of passports to an infrastructure of privacy-by-design privacy and actual security. The fact of the matter is that people are just not very good at security: We are the weakest link and, as I am fond of remarking, it’s quite easy to fool someone with a fake picture of Brad Pitt, it’s impossible to fool their bot with a fake Brad Pitt digital signature.
It’s not a hard prediction to make that AI is going to change our industry just as its going to change every other industry. But I think it’s important to note that this is about more than saving a few people in the call centre or making slightly better credit decisions. The industry is going to be shaped by what customers do with AI and the evolution of agentic finance will lead to a very different kind of industry but it will be an industry that services its customers far better than the half-analogue, half-digital transition industry that we have today.
Jackson Walker represented Third Coast Bank, as administrative agent and lead arranger, in connection with a senior secured credit facility for AccessParks, a leading provider of broadband services to outdoor hospitality and manufactured housing communities across the United States.
The transaction involved a delayed draw term loan facility with total commitments of up to $25 million, including incremental capacity, and will support AccessParks’ continued growth, strategic acquisitions, and refinancing of existing indebtedness.
AccessParks is a portfolio company of M/C Partners, a private equity firm focused on digital infrastructure and technology‑enabled services. The company delivers broadband and managed Wi‑Fi solutions to national parks, RV parks, and manufactured housing communities nationwide
The Jackson Walker team was led by debt finance partner Sarah Christian and associates Brooke Yarborough and Chiara Natale. The Third Coast Bank team was led by Elizabeth Falco, Tyler Shelton, Shai Thakkar, and Donna Schwark.
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Since 1887, Jackson Walker has represented some of the most influential companies and business leaders in the world. Today, we remain firmly rooted in Texas while serving clients around the globe. With more than 500 attorneys, we are the largest law firm in the state. Jackson Walker consistently ranks among leading firms in Chambers and Partners, Best Law Firms® by Best Lawyers, and the BTI Client Service A-Team. To explore Jackson Walker’s experience advising lenders, sponsors, and growth‑stage companies in commercial finance transactions supporting the development and expansion of fiber broadband and digital infrastructure networks, visit the Finance & Banking practice page.
The Eagle River/Chugiak Parks and Recreation offices on July 9, 2021 in Eagle River. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Municipal inspectors looking into accounting practices at a popular recreation facility in Eagle River found “deficiencies in recordkeeping and numerous inconsistencies within their financial records” during recent years.
The Anchorage Police Department confirmed there is an investigation connected with the facility, but declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing nature of the case.
Anchorage’s Office of Internal Audit released its report on the Harry J. McDonald Memorial Center on Dec. 31, 2025.
The facility, often referred to as the Mac Center, is owned by the Municipality of Anchorage, but run by a nonprofit, the Fire Lake Arena Management Inc., under the terms of a contract. Originally built in 1983, the McDonald Center has an Olympic-size ice rink, indoor walking track and large turf field, as well as meeting rooms.
The municipality routinely audits various departments, offices and facilities as part of its oversight of public resources. A previous audit of the McDonald Center in 2017 reported instances of financial mismanagement and accounting errors. A 2023 audit of the same facility found that the contract between the municipality and the nonprofit tasked with running it had lapsed, and as such, investigators couldn’t determine whether or not its terms were being observed.
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Even before the latest audit began in 2025, Yoshiko Flanagan, the facility’s current general manager, said she alerted the city about “abuses” she spotted when she began working there as a part-time bookkeeper at the end of 2023.
“Honestly, when I first came in, it was a mess,” Flanagan said in an interview last week. “Lotta red flags.”
Upon raising the issue to Mike Braniff, then the head of the Department of Parks and Recreation, staff immediately took it seriously, Flanagan said.
When city inspectors looked into the facility’s financial records, they found a number of irregularities, shoddy practices and probable misconduct that have all made a comprehensive audit of recent fiscal years impossible, according to the report.
“When we started our review, we were provided the financial records in several file boxes,” wrote auditor Kevin Song in the final report. Files were mislabeled, missing or incomplete for a time period stretching from 2021 to 2025, he noted.
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There were other problematic findings. Auditors were told by current staff that the former head of the McDonald Center “had privately re-registered the accounting system under their personal account, preventing the current management access to records prior to 2024.”
“The Center’s management informed us of a pending investigation involving a former employee related to alleged misappropriation of resources. The allegations include irregularities in payroll, corporate card expenditures, misuse of funds from facility-hosted events, and reregistering the financial system under their own personal account to manipulate data. A police report was filed, and the investigation is ongoing,” Song wrote in the audit.
According to figures cited in the audit and submitted to police, “the total potential financial impact was estimated to be $18,822.64 when it was reported; however, the exact amount remains unconfirmed pending the outcome of the investigation.”
In response to questions about the investigation, APD spokesperson Gina Romero declined to name the former employee, given that charges have not been filed and the case is ongoing.
One section of the audit details bonuses being paid out to employees even as the McDonald Center was operating in the red.
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“In 2024, $8,600 in bonuses were paid to full-time employees despite reporting $90,025.41 over the salary/wage budget and ending the year at a loss of $67,687.87,” according to the audit. “In 2023, the total amount of bonuses was $10,100.”
Elsewhere, investigators found that expenses had been filed for things never approved by overseers on the Fire Lake Arena Management Inc. board in the center’s submitted budgets, including $5,893 one year for “vacation expenses for employees” and $7,000 in “moving expenses.”
“Our review found no justification provided for such expenses,” auditors wrote.
According to Flanagan, under her tenure as general manager at the facility, those sloppy accounting practices have since been replaced with standard industry measures bringing the facility into compliance with its contract terms.
“When I did come in, yes, it was very mom-and-pop, (revenue was) handled very irregularly,” she said.
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She attributes some of the issues to the COVID-19 pandemic: The McDonald Center was navigating closures, loss of institutional knowledge among longtime staff and eventually an expansion in services quickly outgrew the old ways of doing things, creating opportunities for misconduct and mismanagement.
“There’s been a big turnaround,” Flanagan said, noting that after in 2024, under the previous general manager, the center ended its year with a deficit around $66,000. Last year, during which she was in charge, the McDonald Center was solidly above its revenue target.
A separate 2021 audit reported a “culture of excess” in procurement and spending practices at the Eagle River/Chugiak Parks and Recreation Division, a distinct entity under the municipality’s larger Parks and Rec Department that technically has oversight over the McDonald Center.
OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Blue Shield of California today announced the appointment of Kevin Jacobsen, former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of The Clorox Company, to the nonprofit health plan’s Board of Directors. Jacobsen brings more than three decades of financial and operational leadership experience across global organizations.
During his seven years as CFO at Clorox, he oversaw financial reporting and controls, enterprise risk management, tax, treasury, internal audit, investor relations, global business services, and mergers and acquisitions.
Blue Shield of California appoints veteran finance leader
Kevin Jacobsen to its Board of Directors
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“Kevin is a deeply respected financial leader with firsthand experience guiding organizations through major operational and digital transformation,” said Pamela DeCoste, Board Chair for Blue Shield of California. “His ability to navigate complexity while keeping a long‑term view will be invaluable to Blue Shield of California as we continue to modernize healthcare delivery and further strengthen our goal to create a healthcare system that’s worthy of our family and friends and sustainably affordable.”
As a member of Clorox’s executive team, Jacobsen was a coarchitect of the company’s multiyear IGNITE transformation strategy, focused on strengthening operations, advancing digital capabilities, evolving the portfolio and significantly expanding innovation. As part of this role, Kevin oversaw the implementation of Clorox’s global ERP financial reporting and controls and financial planning modules, enhancing enterprise-wide processes and operational efficiency. He also led the creation of a Global Business Services organization designed to deliver productivity savings while improving business outcomes through advanced technology.
Jacobsen brings extensive board and governance experience. In addition to Blue Shield of California’s Board of Directors, he serves on the board of Avista Corporation, where he is a member of the Audit, Operations and Technology Committees. He is a Qualified Financial Expert and has served in leadership roles including Chair of the Board of the Clorox Captive Insurance Company from 2021 to 2025. He was also a prior member of the Economic Advisory Council of the San Francisco Federal Reserve from 2022 through 2024.
“Blue Shield’s mission and values resonate deeply with me, particularly its commitment to affordability, transparency and improving the healthcare system for all Californians,” said Jacobsen. “I’m honored to join the Blue Shield of California Board of Directors, and I look forward to contributing my experience to support the nonprofit health plan’s mission to provide access to quality health care that’s sustainably affordable for everyone.”
Jacobsen holds an MBA from the University of Rochester, completed the Wharton Executive Education Program and earned a finance degree from the University of California, Riverside.
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About Blue Shield of California Blue Shield of California strives to create a healthcare system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. The health plan is a taxpaying, nonprofit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with 6 million members, over 6,500 employees and more than $27 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid and Medicare healthcare service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $60 million to the Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last three years to have an impact on California communities. For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit news.blueshieldca.com. Or follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook.
For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit news.blueshieldca.com. Or follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook.
