NEC and Anthropic expand AI partnership to major Japanese financial firms, aiming to strengthen services and cybersecurity defenses.

What happened: NEC announced that seven major Japanese financial institutions—Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Sumitomo Life Insurance, Daiwa Securities Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, and Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance—will join its strategic collaboration with U.S. startup Anthropic. The partners plan to develop new AI services and improve business processes using Anthropic's Claude Mythos AI model.

Why it matters: The financial sector has expressed concern that Claude Mythos may be used for cyberattacks. By participating in this structured collaboration, these institutions aim to enhance their system security while gaining controlled access to the technology. The partnership also lets them work on improving customer-facing financial services through AI.

What to watch: The collaboration, announced in April, targets three sectors—financial services, manufacturing, and local government. Japan's three megabank lenders (MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., and Mizuho Bank) are believed to have already gained access to Claude Mythos, signaling that security-conscious integration with this AI model is becoming a priority for major financial players.