Bank of America says 1,000 contractors are patching software vulnerabilities
The bank added outside contractors to an existing 3,000-person effort. Software remediation and anti-money-laundering work together drove hundreds of millions of dollars in third-quarter costs.
Bank of America said on Wednesday, October 14, that 1,000 outside contractors it hired in the second quarter were still patching software vulnerabilities. Chief executive Brian Moynihan called the work ‘Mythos remediation’ as he discussed the expense with analysts, bringing into focus the cost of protecting software used across the bank and by its vendors.
The contractors joined 3,000 people already working in the relevant area, Moynihan said. He told CNBC that the vulnerabilities involved code used by internal staff and external vendors. CNBC reported that the effort covered both the bank’s proprietary software and software supplied by vendors.
What Bank of America spent on remediation
Moynihan put third-quarter spending on software remediation and anti-money-laundering compliance issues at ‘a couple hundred million plus.’ The figure covers both areas, so it does not establish a software-only total or a separate cost for the 1,000 contractors.
Bank of America shares fell as much as 8% on Wednesday while Moynihan discussed the spending, CNBC reported. He presented the increase as temporary and said remediation costs should decline as patching progresses: ‘Once you patch, you don't have to patch as much.’
Why the bank accelerated its software work
CNBC reported that Anthropic released Mythos to a small group of banks, technology companies and government agencies in April. Moynihan told CNBC that executives had begun discussing how to address vulnerabilities as frontier AI models emerged, and that the bank moved earlier this year to strengthen a wide range of internal and vendor code.
Moynihan said the bank needed to stay ahead of risks while remaining mindful that software developers also sell it services. That makes vendor code part of the bank’s remediation work alongside software it develops itself.
AI plans alongside the patching effort
The bank is pursuing AI projects even as it pays to address software vulnerabilities. Moynihan told CNBC it had about 130 internal AI projects and expected savings from them to rise from $300 million in 2026 to $700 million in 2027.
Moynihan also said Bank of America’s head count had fallen by about 3,400 over the preceding year and that it had cut roughly 5% of managers. CNBC said it was unclear how much of that reduction was attributable to AI.
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Sources and context
- Bank of America hired contractors to protect its software from powerful rogue AI agentsBusiness Insider
- Bank of America hired 1,000 contractors to patch software flaws exposed by Anthropic's MythosCNBC
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.