Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday asked banks to prioritize strengthening their cyber defenses, promptly report suspicious digital activities and engage top cyber security experts amid concerns over emerging risks associated with recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), according to a finance ministry statement released on X.
Chairing a high-level meeting with scheduled commercial banks and key stakeholders, Sitharaman said the evolving threat posed by the latest AI models is unprecedented and requires a high degree of vigilance, preparedness and stronger coordination across financial institutions.
It advised the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to develop a coordinated institutional mechanism to respond quickly and effectively to such threats. Banks have also been ordered to continuously strengthen their defense and monitoring capabilities by engaging specialist agencies and cyber security experts.
The minister further asked lenders to immediately report any suspicious activity or cyber incident to the relevant authorities, including the Indian Cyber Emergency Response Team, and maintain close coordination with all concerned agencies.
The minister emphasized proactive measures and urged banks to take all necessary precautions to secure their IT systems, protect customer data and protect cash resources. It also called for a robust real-time threat intelligence sharing mechanism between banks, CERT-In and other relevant agencies so that emerging threats are identified early and disseminated throughout the ecosystem without delay.
The meeting was attended by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Financial Services Department Secretary M. Nagaraju, CERT-In Director General Sanjay Bahl, senior officials of Reserve Bank of India and National Payments Corporation of India along with CEOs and CEOs of scheduled business banks.
The meeting comes amid growing concerns within financial sector over the potential disruptions and risks associated with Anthropic’s AI Mythos model, prompting government and regulatory authorities to take a closer look.
Secretary of DFS In his speech, Nagaraju said AI can play a major role in boosting financial inclusion and improving risk management, while warning that cyber threats and data protection concerns need to be proactively managed as India’s digital financial ecosystem expands.
