Cyber Attack on One Bank Could Affect 38% of System, NY Fed Says

A cyber attack on one of the biggest U.S. banks could affect the liquidity of almost 40% of the nation’s banking system, an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found.

The Fed staff analyzed a hypothetical cyber event that impaired any bank’s ability to send out payments for a day. If the impaired firm was one of the top five by daily payments volume, 6% of all banks would breach their end-of-day reserve thresholds, the staff found. That would equate to about 38% of total assets in the banking system, according to the study published last week. ...