Global watchdog calls for tighter controls on agentic AI in finance

[LONDON] Global regulators said increasingly autonomous forms of AI could amplify risks for the financial system and called for new controls as adoption accelerates.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) in a report on Wednesday “strongly” encouraged boards to consider implementing safeguards to mitigate risks from AI, including from “agentic” AI — or those systems capable of planning, reasoning and executing tasks with limited human oversight.

Agentic AI is already being used by financial firms for fraud detection, customer service and back-office functions.

About 52 per cent of financial sector respondents to the Cambridge Centre for ​Alternative Finance survey reported active agentic adoption, with 23 per cent of them scaling or transforming and 29 per cent piloting agentic functions.

Regulators and global standard-setting bodies have stepped up warnings about the risks ​posed by the rollout of AI across the financial sector since Anthropic released Mythos, viewed by experts as ​posing significant cybersecurity challenges to the banking industry.

The FSB, a global standard setter, said autonomous AI introduces risks that can “materialise at great speed”, including the possibility of unauthorised or illegal actions, data breaches and disruption to connected systems.

“AI agents pose a distinct challenge for human oversight,” the report said, warning they could pursue actions that stray from firms’ intentions without staff being aware or able to intervene quickly.

To address those risks, the standard setter has outlined a series of proposed “sound practices”, urging financial firms to define clear boundaries on AI use and embed safeguards. The non-binding guidelines are open for feedback till July 22.

They also include boundaries on what AI agents can do and require human approval for high-risk actions, such as financial transactions above certain thresholds.

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Firms can also consider adapting HR controls and processes to AI agents in a way that treats them as “synthetic employees,” the FSB said. REUTERS