The Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two of the world’s most influential financial authorities, have cautioned that a growing wave of cyber-attacks could erode public confidence in the financial system itself.
According to The Guardian, the warning came during a panel on online fraud held at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey cited recent troubling reports, including self-replicating AI agents taking control of personal devices and a hack on French supermarkets that pushed fridge temperatures to 50C.
He argued that the AI debate ultimately centres on maintaining human oversight so that people can continue to rely on technology.
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva shared his concerns, suggesting the mounting cost of cyber-fraud could drive people away from mainstream finance entirely. She drew on her upbringing in Bulgaria behind the iron curtain, where distrust of institutions led people to hoard cash at home, and said those on the margins of the financial system faced the greatest danger.
Her remarks came shortly after the IMF revealed on Tuesday that it had lifted its global financial stability threat level to “elevated”. The fund pointed to the prospect of a major cyber-attack as a contributing factor, together with rising borrowing costs and the possibility of an AI-driven collapse in share prices.
Bailey also highlighted that fraudsters increasingly operate through social media and apps rather than conventional banking routes.
He compared the position of these platforms with UK newspapers, which carry legal accountability for their content, and called on technology firms to accept a share of the burden. He further urged that the AI capabilities exploited by criminals be deployed to defend the financial system.
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said, “If you try to say what’s at the heart of this debate about AI – for me, it’s about trust in technology and it’s about human control to achieve that trust in technology.” He added, “If we don’t have trust in money, we don’t operate as a society.”
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said, “I was born and grew up on the other side of the iron curtain. We didn’t trust the system. What did we do? I would have my dollars in a shoebox under my bed. And I worry, today, that unless we figure out how to get ahead of this curve, given the speed, the scale and the cost of fraud growing up, we may end up with lots of people with shoeboxes under their beds.”
She continued, “Imagine what would happen if trust disappears or is eroded to a point that people no more have the courage to be included.”
Bailey said, “We’ve moved into quite an extreme position of, well, these platforms are open to everybody and there’s no real liability to the provision of the platform to what’s on it. Guess what? Everything’s on it. You know, the good, the bad and the incredibly ugly and downright criminal and terrible.”
He added, “I don’t go around pointing the finger at people and saying: ‘You’re bad.’ What I have said is: ‘Look, there is responsibility all around.’ And we need to evolve to a world where everybody understands this responsibility, and everybody is then a part of addressing the problem.”
He continued, “We must get the social media companies involved because a lot of this fraud is transmitted through those channels.”
Bailey concluded, “I’m going to use a sporting metaphor: this technology is arming the offence but it can also arm the defence, and it must do.”
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