$3,000,000,000,000 Bank Says It’s Being Attacked ‘All the Time’ by Hackers, With Cybersecurity Now Lender’s Biggest Expense

The British banking giant HSBC is being attacked “all the time” by cybercriminals, according to the firm’s chief executive.

The $3 trillion bank’s CEO Ian Stuart spoke to United Kingdom lawmakers last month about the threat, according to a new report in The Guardian.

“The amount of money [that] banks, all of us, will be spending on our systems is enormous today. And it has to be. We are being attacked all the time.”

Stuart reportedly said cybersecurity is now HSBC’s biggest expense, with the bank spending hundreds of millions of pounds to prevent hacks.

EY reports that banks are expecting to use 11 of their IT budgets on cybersecurity this year, according to the Guardian.

It’s not just a UK problem: A 2024 study from consumer insights and analytics firm J.D. Power indicated 29 of US bank customers and 22 of credit card users – at banks like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs – experienced fraudulent activity on their accounts in the past 12 months.

As fraud cases increase, J.D. Power reported that protection from illegal activity was a “key component to overall customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and advocacy” for banks.

The study says that only 46 of bank customers and 40 of credit card users say they’ve been asked to act on fraud prevention measures in the last 90 days.