Finance

House Financial Services Committee leaders eye AI regulatory push

Published

11 months ago

December 2, 2024

House Financial Services Committee leaders eye AI regulatory push

Top lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee are using the stretch run of this congressional term to address the impact artificial intelligence has on the finance and housing sectors.

Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the chair and ranking member of the committee, respectively, announced Monday the introduction of a resolution to acknowledge the rising use of AI in financial services and in the housing industry, as well as a bill that calls on financial regulatory agencies to study the benefits of the technology within the sector.

The resolution and bill are the culmination of nearly a year of work from the committee’s bipartisan AI working group and come just days before a hearing that will explore how the technology is framing the future of finance.

“Artificial intelligence holds the promise to revolutionize our financial system,” McHenry said in a statement. “As firms increasingly leverage AI, lawmakers and regulators tasked with oversight of the financial services industry must constantly evaluate the risks and benefits this technology poses. These bills are a small, but critical, step forward to empower the financial system to realize the numerous benefits artificial intelligence can offer for consumers, firms, and regulators.”

The resolution, introduced by McHenry and co-sponsored by Waters, spells out the House Financial Services Committee’s responsibilities when it comes to AI, covering everything from how housing market participants leverage the technology for underwriting and tenant screening to scrutinizing how financial institutions’ use of AI could increase herding behavior in the markets.

The committee, McHenry and Waters write in the resolution, will make sure financial regulatory agencies are carrying out their enforcement powers and have the right tools to do so as AI usage in the sectors proliferates. They’ll also consider reforms to data privacy laws “given the importance of data, especially consumer data, to AI,” collaborate with regulators on AI’s impact on the workforce and do what they can to make sure the United States leads globally on the development and use of AI in the industries.

“Artificial intelligence is growing rapidly, and people across America are already seeing its use in our nation’s housing and financial services sectors, with impacts on mortgage lending, credit scoring, and more,” Waters said in a statement. “Our committee will continue to collaborate closely with the federal government to identify the risks and benefits of AI and to explore further legislation needed to protect people and our communities.”

The Analysis and Improvement Act of 2024 — or the AI Act of 2024 — would require the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Credit Union Administration to deliver a report to the House Financial Services Committee that examines a variety of AI-related issues in the agencies’ respective sectors.

Those issues include the use of AI in home valuation, loan underwriting and servicing, how banking institutions use AI to identify fraud, money laundering and cybercrime, and how AI is used in debt collection and foreclosures. There are also callouts in the bill for how AI can mitigate bias and discrimination in banking services, how the technology can level the playing field between small and large financial institutions, and how it can benefit cybersecurity risk management.

The bill would also require the Securities and Exchange Commission to produce a report on AI’s risks and benefits to the markets and have the Treasury Department study the technology’s ability to secure the country’s financial system from national security threats.

Another provision of the bill calls on the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Rural Housing Service of the Department of Agriculture and the CFPB to report on the risks and benefits of AI on housing and mortgage regulators.

“I look forward to passing these bills and continuing to work in a bipartisan manner on this important issue next Congress,” Waters said.

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Finance

How AI can expose hidden Hezbollah and Hamas networks | The Jerusalem Post

Published

13 hours ago

November 3, 2025

Press Room

How AI can expose hidden Hezbollah and Hamas networks | The Jerusalem Post

Hezbollah and Hamas thrive on shadowy financial networks-charities, trade deals, crypto wallets. But every transaction leaves a trace and AI can spot the patterns no human ever could.

Terror finance patterns

(photo credit: Courtesy)

ByYARON HAZAN

NOVEMBER 3, 2025 16:49

Updated: NOVEMBER 3, 2025 17:12

Finance

The New Hampshire Business Finance Authority honors lenders at the 5th annual Granite State Awards

Published

1 day ago

November 2, 2025

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Finance

Hoskinson Gives Insight on Cardano DeFi and ADA Holders

Published

2 days ago

November 1, 2025

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Hoskinson Gives Insight on Cardano DeFi and ADA Holders

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has responded to renewed criticism about the network’s total value locked (TVL) and relatively sluggish decentralized finance (DeFi) growth.

On October 31, Hoskinson acknowledged the gap between Cardano’s DeFi activity and leading blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. However, he said the numbers fail to capture the network’s broader participation and governance strength.

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Cardano Bets on Bitcoin Interoperability to Unlock Billions in DeFi Liquidity

Hoskinson pushed back on the long-standing belief that introducing major stablecoins such as USDT or USDC would automatically transform Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem.

“No one’s ever made the argument and explained how the existence of one of these larger stablecoins is magically going to make Cardano’s entire DeFi problem go away, make the price go up, massively improve our MAUs, our TVL, and all these other things,” he said.

He argued that their arrival alone would not solve the network’s structural challenges or guarantee growth.

According to him, Cardano already has native, asset-backed stablecoins like USDM and USDA that can be minted at will and rarely lose their peg.

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Instead, Hoskinson pointed to user behavior as the main reason Cardano’s DeFi TVL remains small.

For context, he noted that the network has about 1.3 million users who stake or participate in governance, collectively holding more than $15 billion in ADA.

However, those figures don’t count toward TVL metrics, and most ADA holders remain passive participants rather than active liquidity providers.

“Cardano has a fertile ecosystem. There’s a lot of people floating around. There’s a lot of people who hold ADA, who have Cardano wallets, who have been in our ecosystem — in many cases more than five years. But not a lot of those people have crossed the chasm to use DeFi in Cardano,” he stated.

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He added that this distinction creates a “chicken-and-egg” loop for Cardano’s ecosystem. According to Hoskinson, the network’s low activity deters partnerships and liquidity, while the lack of external integrations further limits on-chain adoption.

To counter these limitations, Hoskinson outlined a multi-year roadmap that ties DeFi growth to real-world finance and Bitcoin interoperability.

He highlighted the Midnight network—a privacy-focused sidechain—and RealFi, a microfinance platform targeting African markets, as key initiatives.

Both will integrate with Bitcoin DeFi, allowing ADA and BTC to be lent, converted into stablecoins, and used in real-world lending products.

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Hoskinson expects this combination to drive “billions of dollars” in new liquidity while attracting Bitcoin’s vast capital base. He also cited ongoing projects such as Leios, as proof that Cardano continues to evolve at the protocol level.

Still, he conceded that Cardano’s core issue is coordination and accountability, not technology.

“It’s not a technology problem. It’s not a node problem. It’s not a problem of imagination and creativity. It’s not a problem of execution. We can pretty much do anything. It’s a problem of governance and coordination and ultimately accountability and responsibility,” Hoskinson said.

To fix this, he proposed delegating clear responsibility for ecosystem expansion. He also called for targeted marketing and event strategies to mobilize ADA holders toward DeFi participation.

“The problem isn’t the ability to do a marketing campaign. The problem isn’t our ability to ship great software. It’s that there’s no one accountable to actually conceive of it, execute it, and be held accountable to the outcome of it. That’s the problem in a nutshell. So that is the problem we have to solve next year as we look to 2026,” He stated.