FCA Chief warns UK finance unprepared for cyber threats. ARK Invest calls for digital resilience
23 OCT, 2025
By Joanna Piwko from RankiaPro Europe
Following recent warnings from Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), that the UK’s financial system is “not prepared” to withstand the growing wave of geopolitical and cyber threats, attention has turned to the vital role of cybersecurity and digital resilience in safeguarding the nation’s economic infrastructure.
Speaking at the City Dinner at Mansion House in London, Rathi cautioned that modern conflict now extends far beyond the battlefield, impacting “balance sheets, funding, markets and consumers”. He urged greater preparedness and stronger systemic defences as cyber incidents and financial crime continue to rise globally.
In response to the speech to be delivered by FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi at the Corporation of the City of London’s annual City Dinner on hardwiring finance into national security, Tom Barker, Product Specialist at ARK Invest, commented:
As our economy becomes increasingly digital, cybersecurity can no longer be treated as a secondary concern: it is foundational to national security, business continuity, and consumer trust. With threats becoming more sophisticated and interconnected, particularly with the rapid rise of generative AI, the risks to data, infrastructure and markets grow exponentially. But just as AI is amplifying threat vectors, it’s also becoming one of our most powerful tools in cyber defence.
Investments in cybersecurity are not only essential to protecting national and economic resilience, they also represent a critical opportunity to support the technologies and companies building that digital armour. Initiatives like the ones from the FCA are vital to bridging the cybersecurity investment gap, ensuring we build systems that are not only connected, but secure by design.
