The IMF warned on Tuesday (October 13, 2026) of “elevated” risks faced by the global financial system, with potential perils including an AI-related market correction and cyber threats that could have “severe” consequences.
The risks posed by cyber threats to the financial system are both “known and very much unknown”, Athanasios Vamvakidis, deputy director of the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, told reporters after the report’s launch. The cautionary message was delivered by the International Monetary Fund’s latest Global Financial Stability Report, published on the second day of its annual gatherings with the World Bank, held this year in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok.
‘Severe’ impact
As AI capabilities continue to improve, the risk of successful cyberattacks on “critical financial institutions or market infrastructure” is getting “worse”, the IMF report said. Cyber threats are more menacing in emerging markets that have not allocated sufficient resources for prevention, Caio Ferreira, deputy division chief at the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, said at the news conference. Another growing risk to the global financial system is a spike in bond yields, which could trigger severe shocks due to the “foundational importance of sovereign bond markets”, the report said.
In one widely covered incident in July, AI agents developed by U.S. firm OpenAI hacked Hugging Face, an AI model and application library, as the autonomous software escaped its confined testing environment.
Earlier reporting noted: It warned that while many advanced economies have been buoyed by rising investment in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, poorer countries that are not benefiting from that boom face stark choices as they deal with high energy prices caused by the Iran war. Earlier reporting noted: On Monday night, blasts resounded across Saudi Arabia’s capital as the war’s impact widens into that country, with Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi forces hitting oil facilities, tankers and transport hubs.
However, “growing evidence suggests that AI capabilities can be delivered at lower investment levels… or that potential economic gains may not be as large as expected,” the IMF warned.
