A new AI tool is coming to UK banks, and it’s raising alarms at the highest levels of global finance.

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI family, has confirmed that British financial institutions will gain access to its newest model within days. 

The model is called Mythos. Until now, only a handful of major US companies, including Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, have been allowed to use it.

Mythos

Mythos is in a league of its own when it comes to cybersecurity risk. Anthropic itself has warned that the model can find and exploit weaknesses in computer systems better than almost any human alive. 

The company wrote in a recent blog post that AI has a supreme level. It can “surpass all but the most skilled humans at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities.”

Banks hold your money, personal data, and entire financial life. And now a tool capable of cracking open digital defenses is heading their way.

Anthropic says the potential fallout could hit economies, public safety, and national security.

Also read: Anthropic Warned Trump’s White House About Mythos

Finance Leaders

This week, global finance leaders gathered in Washington for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. Mythos was high on the agenda.

Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne spoke to the BBC about the threat. He compared it to a far more unpredictable danger than a military chokepoint. 

He said the situation requires a lot of attention to ensure safeguards are in place and that the resilience of the financial system is protected.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, who also chairs the global Financial Stability Board, called it a “very serious challenge.” 

He highlighted just how fast the AI world is moving, and how hard it is for regulators to keep up.

Bailey raised a real issue that many leaders face right now. Move too early with rules, and you might stifle innovation. Move too late, and things could spiral out of control.

UK Rollout

Pip White, Anthropic’s head of UK, Ireland, and Northern Europe operations, confirmed the timeline in a Bloomberg TV interview.

“That is in the very near term, in the next week,” she said. She also noted that engagement from UK CEOs over the past week has been significant.

UK regulators are expected to meet with bank bosses and government officials in the coming weeks to discuss the risks that Mythos brings with it. 

And the conversations have already started behind closed doors.

Global Regulators

Across the Atlantic, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called America’s biggest bank bosses to Washington last week. 

The focus was on systemically important banks, the ones whose collapse or disruption would shake the entire financial system.

The IMF’s Dan Katz, who also served as Bessent’s former chief of staff, put it plainly. 

He said the evolution of digital technology is posing enormous cybersecurity risks and that this issue will dominate the international agenda for months to come.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde also weighed in. She praised Anthropic for thinking carefully about the risks. But she was clear that the world isn’t ready.

“I don’t think there is a governance framework that is there to actually mind those things,” she said. “We need to work on that.”