Asia regulators monitor Anthropic's Mythos for potential banking risks

SYDNEY/SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) - Some Asian regulators said on Monday they were monitoring the development and possible implications of Anthropic's frontier AI model Mythos, which has triggered concerns in the U.S. and Europe over its potential use to destabilise banking systems.

The vast capabilities of Mythos to code at a high level have given it a potentially unprecedented ability to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities, prompting global scrutiny.

A spokesperson for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said that it was closely monitoring the usage of Mythos along with other regulators to assess possible implications for the Australian market.

"ASIC engages closely with other regulators, government agencies and the financial sector to understand and respond to changing technologies," the spokesperson said.

ASIC expects financial services licensees to "be on the front foot" to safeguard customers and clients, they added.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the country's banking regulator, said it would "continue to assess the implications of these technological advancements to ensure the ongoing safety and resilience of the financial system."

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

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported the Financial Services Commission (FSC) held an emergency meeting on Wednesday with chief information security officers from the FSS, banks and insurers to review the risks, citing unnamed industry sources.

The FSC was not immediately available for comment.

Separately, Singapore's central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said on Monday that advances in artificial intelligence could speed up the discovery and exploitation of software vulnerabilities in information technology systems.

"Financial institutions need to redouble efforts to strengthen their security defences, proactively identify and close vulnerabilities, and raise vigilance on cyber hygiene, including timely security patching," it said.

MAS said it was coordinating with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore to support critical infrastructure operators.

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney, Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Xinghui Kok and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Alexander Smith)