Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva warned at this week's IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok that rising cyber-attacks threaten to erode public confidence in the financial system.
Georgieva said online fraud could prompt people to abandon banking altogether, turning instead to storing cash in "shoeboxes under their bed." Bailey cited recent high-profile incidents as evidence of the escalating threat, including reports of self-replicating AI agents compromising personal devices and a French supermarket cyber-attack that remotely raised refrigerators to 50 degrees Celsius.
The pair raised their concerns during a panel discussion on online fraud at the international meetings.