Artificial Intelligence (AI)

On Monday, May 17, 2021, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) issued a request for information and comment (“RFI”) regarding the current and potential digital asset activities of insured depository institutions (“IDIs”).  The RFI is intended to inform the FDIC’s understanding of digital asset activities, including associated risk and compliance management issues.  Comments on the RFI are due by July 16, 2021.

The RFI categorizes digital asset activities into five use cases and solicits comments based on this framework.  The five use cases are (i) technology solutions, such as token-based systems and distributed ledgers; (ii) asset-based activities, such as investments and margin lending; (iii) liability-based activities, such as deposit services and reserves; (iv) custodial services; and (v) other activities, which could include market-making and decentralized financing.  The RFI requests comment on whether additional use cases should be included within this framework and which use cases have the greatest demand in the marketplace.  The RFI also requests that commenters provide more detailed information about the use cases that IDIs currently conduct or are considering conducting.…

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On February 27th, Reps. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced a resolution emphasizing the need to ethically develop artificial intelligence (“AI”). H. RES. 153, titled “Supporting the development of guidelines for ethical development of artificial intelligence,” calls on the government to work with stakeholders to ensure that AI is developed in a…

On February 11, 2019, President Trump signed an Executive Order (“EO”), “Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” that launches a coordinated federal government strategy for Artificial Intelligence (the “AI Initiative”).  Among other things, the AI Initiative aims to solidify American leadership in AI by empowering federal agencies to drive breakthroughs in AI research and development (“R&D”) (including by making data computing resources available to the AI research community), to establish technological standards to support reliable and trustworthy systems that use AI, to provide guidance with respect to regulatory approaches, and to address issues related to the AI workforce.  The Administration’s EO is the latest of at least 18 other countries’ national AI strategies, and signals that investment in artificial intelligence will continue to escalate in the near future—as will deliberations with respect to how AI-based technologies should be governed.
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Continue Reading President Trump Signs Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence

On December 3, 2018, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Federal Reserve), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), the National Credit Union Administration (“NCUA”), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) (collectively, “agencies”) released a joint statement on innovative efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

In the joint statement, the agencies encouraged banks to consider and, if appropriate, responsibly implement innovative approaches with respect to their anti-money laundering (“AML”) and Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) compliance obligations. In particular, the agencies discussed innovative internal financial intelligence units that may be tasked with “identifying complex and strategic illicit finance vulnerability and threats.” The agencies also discussed artificial intelligence and digital identity technologies and recognized the value of these innovative approaches in strengthening banks’ BSA/AML compliance programs, as well as potentially reducing compliance costs.…

Continue Reading Financial Agencies Release Joint Statement on Innovative Efforts to Combat Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

On July 9, 2018, the Economic Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (the “EP”) published a study identifying potential competition law concerns in the financial technology (“FinTech”) sector (the “Study”).

This Study follows the Consumer Financial Services Action Plan launched by the European Commission in March 2017, which aimed to promote greater choice and better…