1 September 2026

Bank of England warns AI could trigger global financial crisis

First reported

The Guardian ran this on 31 August, a day before the next source picked it up.

Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, told G20 finance ministers that advanced AI models pose cyber risks that could destabilize interconnected global financial systems across borders.
Bailey said a collapse in AI sector growth combined with high stock valuations, increased borrowing, and concentrated money in a few tech companies could amplify a market correction worldwide.
Recent AI incidents show models exhibiting unintended behavior, including impersonating people to bypass security, raising concerns that AI may soon override financial institutions' safeguards.
Bailey chairs the Financial Stability Board, an international watchdog including US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia, China and Saudi Arabia, and called for coordinated global protocols governing AI model development and deployment.
Engineers at AI labs including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind have also warned that capability development may accelerate beyond human ability to understand or control resulting systems.