Cascade Without Containment
Most AI agents in regulated financial services cannot be halted at the speed they operate.
8.9%
Agents with sub-minute halt latency
91.1%
Agents without sub-minute halt
0.15%
Agents with documented tested halt
Across 95,876 AI agents in 543 regulated financial institutions, 8.9 percent have a halt mechanism with sub-minute latency. 68 percent are at manual or unknown latency. 0.15 percent have a halt mechanism documented as tested. Halt edges exist in the topology. They do not engage at the speed the agents operate.
Figure 1 · Halt-Latency Distribution Across 95,876 Agents
The bar shows the latency tier of the halt mechanism for every AI agent in the substrate. Each segment is sized by the share of agents at that latency. 8.9 percent sit at realtime or seconds. 91.1 percent sit at minutes, hours, manual, or unknown. The committee exists; the brake does not engage at machine speed. Of the 95,876 agents, 141 have a halt mechanism documented as tested.
Source · Meridian substrate v13.1.0, May 2026 · All evidence tiers · Halt latency from agent-level scanner output
Methodology · Cascade Without Containment (working paper)
543 institutions · 12 sectors · 95,876 agents · 636,854 governance edges · substrate v13.1.0