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Regulators need to get ahead of those who are disrupting the financial markets, according to the head of the industry watchdog.<\/p>\n
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, has warned that artificial intelligence has raised the level of risk, with changes in technology sometimes happening \u201cwithin weeks\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a City of London dinner, Mr Rathi urged the authorities to work in partnership to tackle the growing threats, such as this week\u2019s attack on Google Cloud that took down numerous websites, including Daily Business<\/em>. Banks and delivery firms were among others hit by the attack.<\/p>\n \u201cThe threats to market integrity are as serious as I have seen them,\u201d he said. \u201cUnprecedented volatility, concentration risks, new forms of market abuse and rampant cross-border financial crime: fast-emerging technologies are putting these on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n Rathi was responding to warnings from global regulators over the threat that rapid advancements in frontier AI were posing to key infrastructure such as payments and trading. It comes amid concerns that AI laboratories are sacrificing safeguards in their race to develop more complex technology.<\/p>\n Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has called on watchdogs to take firmer control of the rise of these technologies which are putting the entire system at risk.<\/p>\n Speaking after last night\u2019s dinner, Mr Rathi acknowledged that the technology was providing opportunities and transforming lives, making access to products easier, but there needed to be a swift response to dealing with the \u201cbad actors\u201d destabilising the market.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a whole range of tools and legislation and we have to make sure we are using those as effectively as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe scale of what we are dealing with requires a level of partnership and mobilisation that we have never seen before.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time there is an incident it needs to be reported and lessons learned but we also need investment in recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important that everybody thinks about what they need to do in those circumstances so they can recover as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cSpeed is an issue. Technology is moving within weeks, sometimes faster than that. Our systems, making rules take longer and we need to think about how we get ahead of them and disrupt them.\u201d<\/p>\n Daily Business Bulletin<\/strong>:\u00a0Subscribe here for our free morning bulletin of breaking news<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \t <\/div>\n