British financial institutions face imminent warnings over critical cyber vulnerabilities linked to Anthropic's newly released Claude Mythos Preview, triggering an urgent multi-agency review by UK regulators. The Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority, HM Treasury, and National Cyber Security Centre are examining systemic IT weaknesses across banks, insurers, and exchanges following the AI system's discovery of 'thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities' in financial infrastructure. This emergency British response comes after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent summoned Wall Street leaders to address identical threats from the $380 billion startup's latest model.
The issue is set for the next meeting of the Cross Market Operational Resilience Group, or CMORG, where British regulators and finance companies discuss threats to the sector. CMORG is co-chaired by Duncan Mackinnon, the Bank of England’s executive director for supervisory risk, and David Postings, head of UK Finance.
The group includes senior representatives from eight of the biggest UK banks, four financial infrastructure providers, two insurers, plus the NCSC, the FCA, and HM Treasury. The Telegraph first reported the agenda. The Bank of England declined to comment.
Anthropic said, “It would not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who are committed to deploying them safely.” It also warned that “the fallout for economies, public safety, and national security could be severe.”
Officials are examining whether tools like this could expose weak spots across payment systems, trading venues, insurance networks, and other core parts of the market. David Raw, managing director for resilience at UK Finance, said, “We are aware of the press reports on the Anthropic AI development and the risks highlighted.”
He added, “UK Finance engages with our members and through our public/private partnerships on any significant operational risks that could affect the resilience of the UK financial services sector.”
The Bank of England can also call the separate Cross Market Business Continuity Group within one to two hours during an urgent threat, but it has not done that here.
The wider AI backdrop is rough at the same time. OpenAI, a rival to Anthropic, is pausing its multibillion-pound UK data center project, Stargate UK. The plan included a large site in northeast England and access to powerful chips through partnerships with Nvidia and Nscale.
It was part of a wider £31 billion UK tech investment package. On Thursday, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company would move ahead only when the “right conditions” could “enable long-term infrastructure investment.”
The spokesperson said, “We see huge potential for the UK’s AI future. London is home to our largest international research hub, and we support the government’s ambition to be an AI leader.” They added:-
“AI compute is foundational to that goal. We continue to explore Stargate UK and will move forward when the right conditions such as regulation and the cost of energy enable long-term infrastructure investment.”
When OpenAI announced the project in September, it said it would strengthen the UK’s “sovereign compute capabilities” and bolster native AI development. It also said the project would help power the future economy, boost competitiveness, and support the national AI Opportunities Action Plan.
But Britain’s energy prices were already far above those in the US before the Iran war drove costs higher, and uncertainty remains over whether the law will change to let AI firms train models on copyrighted works through an “opt out” system for creators.
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