The image of the bank robber is hopelessly outdated. Today’s heist does not begin with a getaway car outside a branch. It begins quietly, with an adversary establishing persistence inside a financial institution’s network and studying how the organisation responds, says Tom Kellermann, VP of AI Security and Threat Research at Trend AI.
The objective is no longer simply to steal money. Attackers want access to the financial system itself: payment infrastructure, confidential market intelligence, investment strategies, customer identities and the mechanisms used to defend them. TrendAI’s Modern Bank Heists in 2026 research, based on a survey of 48 financial-sector CISOs, reveals the scale of this shift. Eighty-nine per cent reported an increase in AI-enabled attacks, while 55 per cent had experienced a rise in attacks against APIs. Almost half, 46pc, had encountered attempts to steal non-public market information or investment strategies.
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Source: Trend Micro News
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