The heads of the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund have warned that escalating cyber-attacks pose a growing threat to public confidence in the financial system.

Speaking during a panel discussion on online fraud at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey cited alarming reports of self-replicating artificial intelligence agents taking control of personal devices and a cyberattack on a French supermarket that caused refrigerated units to heat up to 50°C.

“If you try to say what’s at the heart of this debate about AI – for me, it’s about trust in technology and it’s about human control to achieve that trust in technology,” he said.

“If we don’t have trust in money, we don’t operate as a society.”

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva shared Bailey’s concerns, warning that the growing prevalence of cyber-fraud could erode public confidence and push people out of the formal financial system.

“I was born and grew up on the other side of the iron curtain,” the Bulgarian economist said. “We didn’t trust the system. What did we do? I would have my dollars in a shoebox under my bed.

“And I worry, today, that unless we figure out how to get ahead of this curve, given the speed, the scale and the cost of fraud growing up, we may end up with lots of people with shoeboxes under their beds.”

She said this threat was particularly acute for people on the fringes of the financial system. “Imagine what would happen if trust disappears or is eroded to a point that people no more have the courage to be included,” she said.

The comments came after the IMF warned on Tuesday that the risk of a major cyber-attack was among the factors pushing global financial stability risks to an “elevated” level, alongside rising borrowing costs and the possibility of a sharp decline in AI stock valuations.