Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned at a G30 event in Bangkok that the fast-growing use of AI agents to handle financial transactions risks creating confusion over legal liability. He stated that regulators “have got to address” concerns that people could be misled about who is responsible when AI agents carry out payments or other transactions on their behalf. Bailey, who also chairs the Financial Stability Board, described AI as “a major issue” for financial stability and emphasized that “model testing” is more important than just regulation to build public confidence.
He noted that while economic agents can be created, legal agents cannot under current systems, making risk management and liability critical. The comments came during the IMF annual meeting, where G7 finance ministers discussed simulated drills to guard against AI-driven cyber attacks. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned that without guardrails, humanity could find itself in a world “without money” due to non-human intelligence.
Other officials, including South Korea’s president and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, highlighted recent AI-related attacks on banks and growing cybersecurity flaws. Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song described AI as a “clever black box” and urged reliance on classical regulatory tools like capital requirements and leverage restrictions.
Source: Financial Times Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing