The Bank of England will warn City leaders about risks from Claude Mythos, a new AI system from Anthropic deemed too dangerous for public release. The tool can discover hidden computer system flaws faster than humans, raising concerns it could breach financial system security. Duncan Mackinnon, the Bank's risk chief, will chair a Cross Market Operational Resilience Group meeting within a fortnight to discuss the threat. Treasury officials, the Financial Conduct Authority and National Cyber Security Centre will attend. The alarm follows a crisis meeting this week between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Wall Street executives. The UK's AI Security Institute is testing Mythos to develop defences, whilst Anthropic has enrolled tech giants including Apple, Microsoft and Amazon to identify vulnerabilities in their software through Project Glasswing.

The Bank of England received 712 applications for its voluntary resignation scheme, with 446 staff — approximately 8% of employees — ultimately departing. The Bank will pay £36 million in settlements, averaging £81,000 per person. The departures are part of efforts to save £45 million, or 8% of operating costs, to fund an overhaul of the Bank's forecasting systems following recommendations by former Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke. His 2024 report criticised the Bank's "out of date" and "not adequately maintained" forecasting infrastructure. The voluntary scheme will account for £35 million in savings, with a further £10 million needed from elsewhere. Governor Andrew Bailey warned that compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out, despite the current scheme being entirely voluntary.

Zürich-based UAC Labs has been selected by the Bank of England as one of 18 firms to participate in its RT2 Synchronisation Lab, a programme testing synchronised settlement of tokenised assets and digital money. UAC Labs is the only Swiss participant and one of five firms based outside the UK. The company will test its patent-pending Coordination State Machine protocol, which enables atomic multi-party settlement across different ledgers and payment systems without requiring smart contracts or blockchain bridges. UAC Labs is one of only two participants focused on decentralised solutions. Founded in 2025 by George Heyward II and Dr Alexander Hobbs, the company aims to enable financial institutions to coordinate across heterogeneous systems whilst maintaining existing custody arrangements. The Lab runs from spring to autumn 2026.