Andrew Bailey, chair of the Financial Stability Board and governor of the Bank of England, sent a letter to G20 finance ministers and central bank governors on August 28, warning that frontier AI models pose a growing threat to the global financial system. The letter was publicly released on August 31, ahead of G20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina.
The core concern is straightforward: advanced AI is getting good enough to find and exploit cybersecurity weaknesses faster than defenders can patch them. Bailey argues this creates an asymmetry that could ripple across the entire financial infrastructure.
The cyber threat comes first
Bailey’s letter identifies AI-driven cyberattacks as the most immediate risk. Frontier models, he warns, can dramatically accelerate the identification of vulnerabilities in financial institutions’ systems while simultaneously making attacks more sophisticated.
The FSB’s July 2026 Financial Stability Report had already flagged increased cyber risks stemming from AI advancements. Bailey’s letter to the G20 builds directly on those findings, escalating the urgency from “something to monitor” to “something that demands coordinated action now.”
