The European Central Bank (ECB) has called on banks to urgently invest in strengthening operational resilience to protect themselves from new threats brought by advanced artificial intelligence.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs European Financials conference in Zurich, ECB Executive Board member Frank Elderson pointed out that frontier AI models, which represent the technological pinnacle in the world of artificial intelligence, are changing the cyber threat landscape and lowering the barriers for attackers.
Elderson warned that banks can be well capitalized and liquid, but without preparedness for cyber attacks and technological failures, they risk losing their ability to operate.
He recalled incidents such as the ransomware attack on ICBC in 2023 and the global system crash caused by the CrowdStrike bug in 2024, reports BHRT.
The ECB has already carried out a resilience test on 109 banks, and the new DORA regulation gives authorities the ability to check banks’ ability to recover from sophisticated attacks.
– Our message is simple – act early, invest decisively now and don’t wait for the next incident to reveal your weaknesses – Elderson said, adding that client trust is key to banks’ competitiveness in the digital age.
