Financial institutions continue to be the backbone of the global economy. A cyber attack that compromises the operations of a financial institution can have a major effect on the ability to access finance and payment systems, with direct impacts for markets, businesses across sectors and the general public. As a result, issues related to cyber security are highly regulated. Reflecting the importance of this issue, the International Monetary Fund made the growing threat of cyber attacks, and the knock-on potential impact for macroeconomic stability, a major theme of its April 2024 Global Financial Stability Report.1
The sector faces an increasingly complex risk landscape — as can be seen in the recent high-profile attacks targeting both companies and government agencies. In April 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, whose role is to regulate and supervise U.S. and foreign banks, announced that the emails of executives and other employees of the agency had been hacked, blaming long-standing vulnerabilities for the breach.2
The finance and insurance industries are well aware of the extent of these risks….
