Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing said on Monday that banks were in close contact with European watchdogs about Anthropic's Mythos AI model, as regulators moved quickly to examine the cybersecurity risks it poses to the financial sector.

Sewing, who also chairs the Association of German Banks, told journalists that the threat did not warrant alarm but required active management. "It's certainly not something that's causing panic or setting off any alarm bells on our end right now, but it's definitely something we need to keep in mind in our day-to-day risk management – and that's exactly what we're doing," he said.

The Deutsche Bank chief said banks were ready to respond and that restricted access to Mythos was appropriate. "The banks are prepared for this and have their own responses. So this is something we have to live with, and of course everyone is trying to gain access, but I also think it's right that access is limited for now," he told journalists, adding that a German banking association would convene to discuss the matter on Monday.

Anthropic has restricted access to Mythos to partners in its Project Glasswing initiative and around 40 additional organisations that build or maintain critical software infrastructure. JPMorgan Chase is the only bank Anthropic has publicly confirmed has access. Multiple senior banking and regulatory sources in Europe told Reuters they were unaware of any European financial institution having been granted access.

In Germany, the German Banking Association has been consulting cyber experts at member banks alongside the finance ministry, the Bundesbank, and financial watchdog BaFin. Kolja Gabriel, a member of the executive board responsible for technology and innovation, told Reuters that IT security firms were already using Mythos in a controlled manner to close potential vulnerabilities. "We expect a series of software updates shortly and are closely monitoring developments," he said.

BaFin said in a statement that financial firms must be ready for the possibility that vulnerabilities could be discovered in the near future and would need to be addressed promptly. Two European supervisory sources told Reuters that regulators were not yet overly concerned and were assessing the model through existing cyber resilience processes.

Against that backdrop, the British government wrote to company leaders on 15 April warning that testing by its AI Security Institute had found Mythos to be substantially more capable at cyber offence than any model it had previously assessed.

Barclays chief executive C. S. Venkatakrishnan said in Washington on Friday that Mythos represented a serious threat to the global banking system and was likely to be followed by similarly powerful cyberthreats.

South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service said it had held a meeting with information security officials from financial firms last week to review Mythos-related risks.

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