Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned in Bangkok that rising cyber fraud could damage public trust in the financial system and push some people outside formal finance.
Speaking at a panel on online fraud during the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group, Bailey cited reports of self-replicating artificial-intelligence agents hijacking personal devices and a hack at a French supermarket that caused refrigerators to heat to 50C. He said trust in technology depends on retaining human control and argued that society cannot function without confidence in money.
Recalling her childhood behind the Iron Curtain, she described storing dollars in a shoebox because people did not trust institutions, and warned that weakened confidence could make people on the margins of finance less willing to participate.
The discussion followed an IMF warning that the possibility of a major cyber-attack had helped raise the global financial stability threat level to “elevated, ” alongside higher borrowing costs and the risk of a fall in AI-related share prices.
Bailey said fraud increasingly travels through social-media platforms and apps rather than only through traditional financial channels. He called for technology used by criminals to be deployed in defence of the financial system and urged social-media companies to accept responsibility for fraud transmitted through their services.
The panel launched the Bangkok Blueprint for Fraud-Resilient Financial Services.