G7 finance leaders prepare joint exercises against AI-powered cyberattacks

2026, October 18

United States / Japan / Canada / United Kingdom / France / Germany / Italy

Finance leaders from the Group of Seven major industrialised nations have agreed to conduct simulated exercises designed to test how financial authorities would respond to cyberattacks enabled by artificial intelligence. Japan's Finance Minister, Satsuki Katayama, announced the initiative following a G7 financial leadership meeting held alongside the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok.

The exercises will examine existing emergency-response procedures and identify weaknesses in the systems used to protect financial institutions. Depending on the scenarios, private-sector financial organisations may also participate. The initiative follows warnings from the International Monetary Fund that AI could make cyberattacks more sophisticated and increase the risks facing banks and other critical financial services.

Why it matters: Banks increasingly depend on interconnected digital systems. Coordinated testing could help governments and financial institutions respond more effectively to attacks that exploit increasingly capable AI tools.

Source: The Indian Express — G7 to launch exercises to guard against AI cyberattacks