A Deputy Governor of the Bank of England has called for a "kill switch" which could be used to stop trading if faulty AI models trigger a "market meltdown".
Sarah Breeden, part of the bank’s financial and monetary policy committees, cautioned that the use of AI agents to trade in financial assets and to carry out retail payment requests risks causing a "market meltdown".
During a speech at the European Central Bank’s annual conference in Portugal, The Times reports, Breeden urged the introduction of "circuit breakers or kill switches" which could "limit or stop trading market-wide" in such an event.
She said: “As AI capabilities increase, we must keep asking whether existing technology-agnostic regulatory frameworks remain sufficient.
“Our frameworks were not built to contemplate autonomous agents, and relying on a human in the loop for all agent actions is unlikely to be realistic. More sophisticated governance and accountability frameworks may be needed.”
She added that as financial systems evolve to operate autonomously, AI agents will begin "transacting on behalf of consumers and merchants; devising and executing trading strategies in financial markets; and identifying and chaining together cyber vulnerabilities".
A full report on the UK's financial stability and the role of AI will be published by the bank next week.
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