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IMF Reports AI Increasing Cyberattacks on Financial Systems
The International Monetary Fund said advanced AI models can dramatically reduce the time and cost to identify and exploit vulnerabilities, outpacing traditional defenses. Barclays CEO called a new AI tool a serious issue for banks. Emerging-market users are increasingly treating crypto exchanges as substitutes for traditional banking, according to a separate report.
May 9, 11:41 AM·3m read3 sources
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Advanced AI models can dramatically reduce the time and cost needed to identify and exploit vulnerabilities, the IMF said. The organization highlighted Anthropic's controlled release of Claude Mythos Preview, which is capable of identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities across major operating systems and web browsers, even by non-experts.
Attackers hold a natural advantage because discovering and exploiting vulnerabilities can occur faster than patching and remediation, the IMF added. This speed is outpacing traditional financial defenses. Barclays CEO CS Venkatakrishnan, speaking at a G30 consultancy group meeting during the IMF spring gatherings, called the new AI tool a serious issue.
He warned it could identify vulnerabilities in financial systems.
Emerging markets accounted for 77 percent of Binance users in 2026, up from 49 percent in 2020. Users in those countries increasingly treat the exchange for savings, payments and investment access rather than pure trading, according to a Binance Research report released Saturday.
The report frames crypto adoption as a financial-access story. Eighty-three percent of users engaging with two or more products on the platform are based in emerging markets, while users there show savings rates more than twice as high as those in developed markets.
About 36 percent of emerging-market Binance users with balances of at least $10 hold at least half of their portfolio in stablecoins. This pattern is consistent with savings-oriented usage. Globally, 28 percent of users meet that threshold, up from 4 percent in 2020.
One point three billion adults lack financial services, 4.7 billion lack credit, and 1.4 billion savers in low-income nations earn no deposit interest. Stablecoins enable transfers on high-performance networks that can cost as little as $0.0001 and settle almost instantly, compared with a minimum of $20 for cross-border SWIFT transactions.
