Global watchdog calls for tighter controls on agentic AI in finance

LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) - 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.

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

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

(Editing by Aurora Ellis)