Estonian bank LHV launches AI assistant integration via open protocol

LHV.ai is a service that connects an Estonian bank's customer data to AI assistants through MCP, an open protocol. The integration was announced as a ready-to-use offering, with setup in three steps: add the LHV server address to your AI tool's settings, sign in with your internet bank credentials (using your preferred authentication method—Smart-ID, Mobile-ID, ID-card, or biometrics), and choose which scopes the AI assistant can access (accounts, transactions, or both). Once connected, users can ask their AI assistant natural-language questions.

The service is live on Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor; a marketplace feature for Claude.ai is listed as "Coming soon." Free Claude.ai users can add one custom connector; desktop and mobile app access follows setup on claude.ai. The connection remains active for 30 days; access tokens expire after 1 hour and refresh tokens last 30 days. Users can revoke permission at any time from their internet bank.

Security is enforced by design. Authentication uses the same methods as LHV's internet bank. The AI assistant receives read-only access—it can list accounts with IBAN, currency, and available balance; fetch raw transaction data in CAMT.053 format (up to 31 days); and retrieve transaction summaries with top counterparties. Every request is logged. Once data reaches the AI tool (Claude, Cursor, etc.), it is governed by that tool's terms and privacy policy.

The integration is powered by four API tools. The MCP server and REST API both expose the same endpoints: a list of all accounts with current balances and a paginated transaction statement query (filtered by IBAN and date range, with optional page and size parameters). REST is intended for direct integrations outside AI assistants. Example use cases shown include checking current balance across accounts (e.g., "Across your 2 accounts you have 37 396,24 €"), querying spending on a category in a date range (e.g., "In March 2026, you spent 412,67 € on groceries across 18 transactions"), and identifying recent subscription renewals by transaction pattern (e.g., "Three subscriptions renewed this week: Spotify (10,99 €), iCloud+ (2,99 €) and Netflix (12,99 €)"). The integration underscores LHV's openness to letting customers access their data through tools they already use, rather than forcing them into a proprietary app.

LHV's integration addresses a friction point in modern digital banking: users already interact with AI assistants daily, yet banking remains siloed in separate apps and websites. By exposing account data through MCP—an open protocol backed by Anthropic and supported by multiple AI tools—LHV avoids lock-in and lets users choose their preferred assistant. The read-only design and short token lifespans reflect a deliberate privacy-first approach: the bank cannot and will not act on behalf of the user, and access is time-limited and revocable.

The availability of both MCP and REST API shows two deployment paths. MCP is optimized for conversational AI assistants, while REST supports developers building custom integrations. The "Coming soon" marketplace feature suggests LHV expects broader adoption once setup requires no manual configuration—a friction point today even for tech-savvy users. For Estonian customers, this is an early glimpse of how banking and AI assistants may converge; for LHV, it positions the bank as open-minded about where its data lives, rather than insisting users stay within its own app.