Financial firms must boost protections against AI scams, UK regulator to warn

Nikhil Rathi, the head of the Financial Conduct Authority, will warn bosses in the finance sector of their accountability for decisions taken by AI at their firms. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

The head of the UK’s financial regulator is to warn that banks, investors and insurers will have to ramp up their spending to combat scammers using artificial intelligence to commit fraud.

Nikhil Rathi, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), will say that there are risks of “cyber fraud, cyber-attacks and identity fraud increasing in scale and sophistication and effectiveness” as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more widespread, in a speech in London on Wednesday.