Morgan Stanley plans to let corporate clients connect external AI agents to its stock plan platforms, Shareworks and Equity Edge, next year.

The move would give the tools access to data and insights through the Model Context Protocol as companies manage stock plans with fewer staff.

The bank has given a handful of clients early access and expects to expand it to its 3,400 stock plan administration clients next year, said Mark Mitchell, CPO of Morgan Stanley at Work.

Model Context Protocol, or MCP, is an open standard for linking AI assistants to business systems through secure, two-way connections, reducing one-off integrations across enterprise tools.

Shareworks and Equity Edge are used for stock plan accounting, recordkeeping, and administration, including stock grants, vesting, employee accounts, option exercises, compliance, and financial reporting.

Disclosures from US banks, including JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, have focused on internal AI use such as coding, onboarding, and operations, rather than client-run external agents connecting directly to bank systems.

The move also raises risks around authentication, overprivileged access, prompt injection, and data leakage.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, said AI agents in regulated workflows need guardrails, logging, and human oversight.

🔗 Source: CNBC

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