Bailey targets platform liability

At the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok on 14 October, Andrew Bailey argued that social media companies carry too little legal exposure for what appears on their services. The Bank of England governor said platforms are treated as open to everybody, with no real liability for their content, which leaves them hosting everything from ordinary posts to outright crime. He said he was not blaming individuals but that responsibility is shared, and that the companies must take part because much fraud travels through their channels. Bailey has himself been targeted by AI deepfakes on X, including images that showed him fighting Nigel Farage. Earlier this year the Bank reported adverts it said were designed to exploit the public, many linking to fake news articles that steered visitors toward investment schemes. Describing what the platforms carry, he said:

Guess what? Everything's on it. You know, the good, the bad and the incredibly ugly and downright criminal and terrible.

Georgieva warns of eroding trust

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva told the same panel on 14 October that cyber fraud had grown so costly that people could withdraw from the formal financial system altogether. Recalling her upbringing on the other side of the Iron Curtain, she described keeping cash at home because the system could not be trusted.

I would have my dollars in a shoebox under my bed.

In a warning issued on Tuesday, 13 October, the IMF said the possibility of a large cyber-attack was among the factors raising the global financial stability threat level to 'elevated', alongside higher borrowing costs and the risk of an AI share price crash. Bailey pointed to alarming recent examples, including self-replicating AI agents taking over personal devices and a French supermarket breach that left refrigerators heated up to 50C. Georgieva said the threat bites hardest on people at the fringes of the financial system. Bailey stressed that fraud now spreads through social media platforms and apps, not only through traditional financial channels.

Fiscal strain, the US and China

Georgieva singled out the US and European countries as the 'worst offenders' on excessive debt, warning that higher benchmark yields are spilling over to low-income countries that markets have already forced to rein in borrowing. Asked whether the US needs tighter fiscal policy, she said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recognises that US deficit and debt levels are too high and must become more sustainable. She argued that growth alone cannot deliver the necessary adjustments fast enough, so some fiscal measures would be necessary, and that China must shift from export-led growth toward domestic consumption. The IMF's Fiscal Monitor makes the same case, warning that delay in an era of higher borrowing costs will make the task harder in the coming years. Rodrigo Valdes, head of the IMF's Fiscal Affairs department, said the surge in bond yields had left governments with little fiscal room to manoeuvre.

We dialled up the urgency of our message.

Bessent is skipping the Bangkok meetings and focusing on domestic events while the US midterm campaign builds.

Miliband and the G20 agenda

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband called for a 'new deal on debt' to address the borrowing costs that developing countries now face. On the sidelines of the Bangkok meetings he said Britain needs a 'deeper and stronger' relationship with the European Union and lent his support to a reopening of ties with the bloc. His remarks came as the Fund pressed for urgent fiscal consolidation across the global economy. G20 finance ministers are due to meet on the sidelines of the Bangkok meetings on 15 October. The United States holds the G20 presidency this year and has used it to press allies for tougher action against China's 'non-market' economic policies.