Regulatory Modernization

WHITE PAPER • AI: Transforming the Future or Triggering Fear?

Authored by AIR Senior Advisor and former global regulator F. Christopher Calabia, this paper examines the transformative potential and risks associated with the deployment of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the financial services sector.

INITIATIVE • NextGenAI Explores the Future of Financial Oversight and Consumer Protection

NextGenAI is a multi-faceted initiative that delves into the potential impact of Generative AI (GenAI) on financial services and financial regulation through a series of thought-provoking and engaging activities.

PODCAST • Presidential Assistant Elizabeth Kelly: White House Policy On AI

Kelly serves on the White House National Economic Council and helped lead the executive order issued in 2023 on AI. She discusses what the order requires, the challenges it aims to address and the upside opportunity of the technology.

PODCAST • ‘Bold and Boring’ Innovation: Fed Chief Innovation Officer Sunayna Tuteja

The first appointee to lead the Federal Reserve’s innovation office is focused on modernizing the technology of the central bank itself. Her goal is to bring the agency into the 21st century, and to keep it up-to-date as change accelerates.

WHITE PAPER • AIR and Google Release Paper on Applying Model Risk Management Guidance to AI

The paper argues that MRM guidance, given its broad, principles-based approach, continues to provide an appropriate framework for assessing financial institutions’ management of model risk, even for Risk AI/ML models.

PODCAST • FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi on How Regulators Can Be ‘Data-Driven’

Rathi heads the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, which is heavily focused on digital transformation. He sits down with Jo Ann to discuss sandboxes, why the ‘G’ in ESG matters, and why the FCA wants to be a “data-driven regulator.”

PODCAST • Jason Cave on FHFA’s Goal to Modernize Mortgage Process With New Tech

Following the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Velocity TechSprint, the official leading the agency’s conservatorship and fintech strategies joins Jo Ann to discuss all the ways the mortgage market is ripe for a technology overhaul.

REPORT • AIR CEO Touts AI’s Benefits for Regulators in Brookings Paper

The Brookings Institution published a deep dive by Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation, on multiple ways government agencies can use artificial intelligence to power their innovation strategies.

PODCAST • OCC’s Michael Hsu on crypto policy: ‘We want to get it right’

Like all regulators, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is focused on how to regulate cryptocurrencies. Hsu discusses crypto’s role in financial inclusion and his view that stablecoins should be the foundation for the crypto system.

PODCAST • The MSRB’s Impressive Innovation Journey

Jo Ann’s discussion with Chief Data Officer Brian Anthony and Chief Technology Officer Adam Cusson explores the remarkable success of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board in converting to the cloud and redesigning its entire tech architecture.

PODCAST • The Bold Vision of Singapore Central Bank Chief Ravi Menon

Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has charted a bold course on regulatory innovation, inventing new models that are being emulated throughout the world.

EVENT • Developing the Digital Regulator: How Agencies Can Keep Pace With Rapid Change

As digitization and software revolutionize the financial system, AIR hosted an event in September 2021 addressing the challenges for regulators to establish a culture, and acquire the tools needed to catch up with this transformation.

PODCAST • Regtech Comes of Age: ING Bank’s Ian Hollowbread

Hollowbread, who works for ING’s Innovation group known as Neo, explains why regtech is the future of compliance, cites evidence that regtech startups are getting more traction and discusses efforts to make regtech solutions more interoperable.

PODCAST • Rep. Bill Foster on How AI Will Transform Finance

The Illinois Democrat was appointed chair of a House task force on artificial intelligence. He speaks with Jo Ann about banks’ efforts to be more tech savvy, digital identity issues and algorithmic bias, among other subjects.

PODCAST • Jack Henry’s CEO on How Community Banks Can Make Digital Leap

David Foss runs one of three core processors that small financial institutions rely on for tech services. He and Jo Ann discuss community banks’ tough times, how cores can help clients compete and the need for small banks to “plug in” to vendors.

ARTICLE • Article by AIR CEO Explores Bright Future for Digital-Native Compliance

By as early as 2030, generative AI and other innovations will likely spur huge compliance improvements that result in faster data processing, better risk management and other dramatic benefits, Jo Ann Barefoot wrote in ABA Risk and Compliance Magazine.

PODCAST • IIF’s Jessica Renier on Crypto Winter, CBDCs and Regulatory Overhauls

Renier, a veteran of both the Treasury and the Fed and now managing director of digital finance at the Institute of International Finance, speaks with Jo Ann about the recent correction in the crypto markets and the need for regulators to hone new digital tools to get ahead of the curve.

PODCAST • Ribbit Capital’s Mandelker on How to Modernize Government Technology

Former Treasury Undersecretary Sigal Mandelker speaks to Jo Ann with informed insight and candor about the need for the government to work better and the technology gap in financial regulation.

WHITE PAPER • Solving the Regulators’ Dilemma

AIR partnered with the Buckley law firm on a white paper laying out key innovation hurdles for financial regulators. Among the challenges is that as innovation speeds up, regulatory agencies are often slowed down by laws and other limiting protocols that merit a fresh look.

PODCAST • Simon Taylor on How Crypto and DeFi Move Forward

The first 2023 episode is Jo Ann’s discussion with Simon Taylor, Head of Strategy at the anti-fraud tech firm Sardine. He weighs in on crypto’s “massive fraud problem,” and the pros and cons of building trust through decentralization and code.

PODCAST • ‘There Were Zero Plane Crashes Before We Had Planes’: Kyle Hauptman

Kyle Hauptman, vice chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, comes on the show to discuss how his agency encourages credit unions to take steps to stay relevant in the digital era.

PODCAST • Cecilia Skingsley on How BIS Innovation Hub Showcases ‘Art of the Possible’

The head of the Bank for International Settlements’ innovation initiative offers insight on ways that central banks and other regulatory organizations can boldly explore technological change.

PODCAST • Machines that Read Regulations: FINRA’s Goal Could Soon Be Reality

In this episode, Jo Ann speaks with innovation leaders at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Haimera Workie and Alex Khachaturian, about a new tool to help transform financial regulation and compliance.

PODCAST • BIS Executive Tara Rice on Need for Global Standards in New Payments Era

The Bank for International Settlements, which ensures payment systems work, has prioritized technology. Tara Rice, who heads the BIS Secretariat of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, discusses CPMI’s stablecoin guidance and more.

PODCAST • Demystifying DeFi and Web3 with Tomicah Tillemann

Tillemann, Chief Policy Officer of Haun Ventures, shares his views about the crypto winter and how the confluence of blockchain, open source and digital tokens could solve stubborn problems.

PODCAST • Insights From Former Fed Vice Chair Randal Quarles

The Federal Reserve’s ex-vice chair for supervision shares candid and thoughtful insights from his tenure, including advice for other policymakers and lessons learned by serving through the COVID crisis.

PODCAST • How New York Remains on Forefront of Crypto Oversight

Jo Ann welcomes Kaitlin Asrow and Peter Marton — two officials in the New York state Department of Financial Services — to discuss the state’s stablecoin guidance and how the agency is addressing the financial sector’s technology transformation.

OP-ED • Regulators’ First Step to Avert Bank Failures is to Close the Info Gap

Regulators should digitize the call reporting process to gain a real-time understanding of banks’ status, argues AIR CEO Jo Ann Barefoot in an op-ed published by American Banker.

ARTICLE • Barefoot Outlines Steps for Regulators to Keep Pace With Digital Changes

Industry innovation is moving exponentially, creating new risks. Financial regulatory agencies must respond proactively to the digital transformation if they want to avert crises, AIR CEO Jo Ann Barefoot writes in an article for the Journal of Financial Transformation.

OP-ED • Bank Regulators Need to Overhaul Their Digital Capacity

There has never been a better time for agencies regulating the financial sector to prioritize their own digital makeover, argues AIR CEO Jo Ann Barefoot in an op-ed published by American Banker.

PODCAST • Adrienne Harris and Michael Barr on the Central Bank of the Future

Jo Ann speaks with the two policy veterans about their initiative, funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to reimagine central banks to have an embedded goal to advance financial inclusion.

PODCAST • How Credit Unions Cut an Innovation Path: NCUA Chair Todd Harper

Todd Harper is the first head of the National Credit Union Administration appointed after serving in the agency’s own ranks. His conversation with Jo Ann touches on the NCUA’s new innovation office, and the technology pressures and opportunities facing credit unions.

WHITE PAPER • Regtech Manifesto: Redesigning Financial Regulation for the Digital Age

In 2020, the Alliance for Innovative Regulation published this road map for a gradual but urgent conversion of the financial regulatory framework to a digitally native design. One former U.S. agency head called it “the bible for every regulator.”