ABA Statement on Executive Order Promoting Advanced AI Innovation and Security

"We welcome today's executive order as a constructive step toward strengthening the nation's approach to managing the cybersecurity risks and opportunities associated with advanced artificial intelligence. Establishing a voluntary framework for government and industry collaboration, improving coordination around vulnerability identification and remediation, and expanding access to advanced cybersecurity capabilities can help better protect critical infrastructure, including the financial sector.

"Banks already invest heavily in protecting customers, safeguarding sensitive information, and defending against increasingly sophisticated fraud and cyber threats. We are particularly encouraged by the executive order's direction to establish an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse to coordinate vulnerability discovery, validation, prioritization, and remediation across government, technology providers, and critical infrastructure operators. Building on that foundation, successful implementation will depend on ensuring that organizations of all sizes, including community banks, have timely access to actionable threat intelligence, effective cybersecurity tools and practical mechanisms for coordinated response. The clearinghouse has the potential to play an important role in ensuring that lessons learned from advanced AI cybersecurity capabilities, including validated vulnerabilities, mitigation strategies and other actionable defensive intelligence, can be shared broadly and translated into practical protections for community banks and other smaller critical infrastructure operators.

"We appreciate the administration's willingness to hear our perspective on these important issues and encourage the White House to continue advancing a comprehensive, whole-of-industry strategy that strengthens public-private partnership, promotes voluntary information sharing and supports coordinated cyber resilience across sectors. As AI capabilities continue to evolve, maintaining close collaboration between government, technology developers and critical infrastructure operators will be essential to ensuring that innovation is matched by strong security protections for consumers, businesses and the broader economy."

###

About the American Bankers Association

The American Bankers Association is the voice of the nation's $26.1 trillion banking industry, which is composed of small, regional and large banks that together employ over 2 million people, safeguard $20.5 trillion in deposits and extend $13.7 trillion in loans.