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The FSB Delivered Its 12 Final "Sound Practices" for AI to the G20, and the Global FX Committee Is Reviewing Whether Its Code Needs Rules for AI Agents

The Financial Stability Board published the final version of its sound practices for responsible AI adoption by financial institutions on October 15, 2026, twelve non-binding practices on governance, oversight and third-party risk, and sent them to G20 finance ministers and central bank governors with a letter from its chair, Andrew Bailey, that names AI alongside sovereign-bond volatility and private credit as a risk. Separately, Bloomberg reported on October 20 that the Global Foreign Exchange Committee's technology group is assessing whether the FX Global Code, the conduct standard for a $9.5 trillion-a-day market, needs changes for AI, with findings due in December and a code update in 2027.

The world's coordinating body for financial regulators has finished its first rulebook-that-is-not-a-rulebook for AI. On October 15, 2026 the Financial Stability Board published the final report of its sound practices for responsible AI adoption by financial institutions, twelve practices in two groups, the first on organisation-wide AI governance and the second on managing specific AI risks, including oversight of models and dependence on third-party providers. The practices are non-binding, described by the FSB as a toolkit that institutions can scale to their size and risk profile, and the Board "strongly encourages" boards and senior management to use them when designing their AI governance; the draft was consulted on from June, and an overview of the responses was published with the final text.

The report went to the G20 with the FSB chair's letter ahead of the finance ministers' meeting in Bangkok on October 15. Andrew Bailey, who is also governor of the Bank of England, named three risks in that letter: heightened volatility in sovereign bond markets, vulnerabilities in private credit, and risks from artificial intelligence, and said that focusing on "safe adoption of AI across the financial system will remain an important feature" of the FSB's agenda next year. The same package included a thematic review of public backstop funding for banks in resolution and a consultation on modernising supervision; AI was the only technology on the list.

The foreign-exchange market, the largest and least centrally regulated market of all, is running a parallel exercise. According to a Bloomberg report summarised by Crypto Briefing on October 20, the technology working group of the Global Foreign Exchange Committee, the body of central banks and dealers that maintains the FX Global Code, is assessing how automation is changing the market and will form a preliminary view on whether the code needs amendments for AI, central bank digital currencies and tokenised assets. The committee has not decided that revisions are needed; it plans to discuss survey findings in December and publish a summary in early 2027, ahead of the code's scheduled 2027 update. Over-the-counter FX turnover averaged $9.5 trillion a day in April 2025, 27% more than three years earlier.

The thread connecting the two is the agent. The FSB's practices are about how an institution governs the AI it deploys; the FX committee's question is what happens when many institutions deploy agents that read the same prices and react the same way. The Bank of England's Sarah Breeden put it in June: agents responding to similar triggers "could amplify volatility in stress." Britain's regulators are now assessing runtime oversight of live agents and kill switches, the FCA published its examples of good practice on October 19, and the CFTC and SEC hold their AI sessions on October 28 and November 9. None of it is binding yet. All of it, from the G20 to the dealing room, is being written in the same month.

Sources: Financial Stability Board — FSB Chair sets out FSB work on AI and stablecoins (Oct 12, 2026); ABA Banking Journal — Financial Stability Board finalizes 'sound practices' for AI adoption (Oct 2026); Crypto Briefing (citing Bloomberg) — FX market tightens AI governance as autonomous trading spreads (Oct 20, 2026)