Bank of England and IMF bosses warn of cyber threat to trust in financial system

The Bank of England’s Andrew Bailey and the IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva at the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group in Bangkok, Thailand. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPA

The heads of the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund have issued a stark warning that rising cyber-attacks risk undermining trust in the financial system.

Speaking on a panel about online fraud at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, pointed to alarming headlines about self-replicating AI agents hijacking personal devices, and the French supermarket hack that heated fridges up to 50C.