Treasury Gathers Industry and Regulators for AI Finance Talks

The Treasury Department announced Monday (March 23) that a series of four roundtables dubbed the “AI Innovation Series” will bring together financial institutions, technology firms, regulators and specialized experts to explore artificial intelligence use cases as well as the preservation of safety and soundness while scaling this technology.

This public-private initiative was launched by the Office of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and the Treasury Department’s Artificial Intelligence Transformation Office (AITO), the Treasury Department said in a Monday press release.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the release that the department is optimizing regulation because leadership in AI adoption is crucial for economic security.

“The Treasury Department will continue evaluating regulatory frameworks and enforcement policies to enable the U.S. financial sector’s leadership in AI adoption while preserving national security and long-term economic resilience,” Bessent said.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for FSOC Christina Skinner said in the release: “When institutions cannot deploy tools that improve fraud detection, credit allocation and operational resilience, the system becomes less efficient and less secure.”

Paras Malik, Treasury’s chief AI officer and counselor to the secretary, said in the release: “Through the Innovation Series, we are convening regulators and industry leaders to ensure governance frameworks evolve alongside deployment and remain fit for purpose as AI becomes embedded across financial markets.”

In another recent move, the Treasury Department said in a February press release that it launched two new resources to guide the financial sector’s use of AI: AI Lexicon, which defines key AI-related terms to improve sector communications, and Financial Services AI Risk Management Framework, which is designed to help financial services organizations conduct their own assessments.

Two days before that, the Treasury Department said it would release six resources designed to enable secure and resilient AI across the financial system. The department said these resources would provide an integrated approach to governance, data practices, transparency, fraud and digital identity that can be used when implementing AI in financial services.

“This work demonstrates that government and industry can come together to support secure AI adoption that increases the resilience of our financial system,” Bessent said at the time in a press release.