The focus of the RFI is on the following uses of AI by financial institutions:
- Provision of products and services (e.g., how is AI being used to offer financial products or services? How is AI being used for financial forecasting products and pattern recognition tools?)
- Risk management (e.g., how is AI being used to manage risk and asset liability?)
- Capital markets (e.g., how is AI being used to identify investment opportunities and provide financial advisory services?)
- Internal operations (e.g., how is AI being used to manage payroll, HR functions, training, and software development?)
- Customer service (e.g., how is AI being used to help handle complaints or manage a website?)
- Regulatory compliance (e.g., how is AI being used to assist with regulatory reporting or disclosure requirements?)
- Marketing (e.g., how is AI being used to market to consumers?)
As part of the RFI, the Treasury Department has posed a series of questions geared toward a broad set of stakeholders in the financial services ecosystem (including consumer and small business advocates, nonprofits, academics, and others) to understand the benefits and risks of AI. These questions are use-case focused and seek to ferret out how AI could benefit or pose risks to stakeholders. In addition, the Treasury Department is seeking specific information on how financial institutions are protecting against “dark patterns” and predatory targeting, which could lead to bias and fair lending issues; mimicry of biometric data (e.g., a consumer’s voice), which could affect fraud detection and prevention tools such as multi-factor authentication; and unfair or deceptive acts or practices. The Treasury Department also asks about the privacy impact of AI, noting that AI can enable a firm’s ability to infer attributes and behavior about an individual that could “undermine privacy (including the privacy of others) and dilute the power of existing ‘opt-out’ privacy protections.”
The Treasury Department’s RFI is one of several requests for information on AI. Various other federal agencies are seeking or have sought information on AI, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the National Credit Union Administration, which issued an interagency RFI in 2021 on financial institutions’ use of AI. This most recent RFI is a reminder that this is a hot topic for regulators, and the heat does not appear to be dissipating any time soon.