FinRegLab AI Symposium 2026 Agenda

Agenda

Attendees must register to attend before midnight on November 13.

Wednesday, November 18, 2026

8:00 a.m.

Registration & Coffee

9:00 – 9:10 a.m.

Welcome Remarks

  • Melissa Koide, Founder & CEO, FinRegLab

9:10 – 9:30 a.m.

Fireside Chat: AI’s Unrealized Potential

AI has the power to improve people’s lives — and the potential to harm them. Hear from one philanthropic leader in conversation around the case for what an AI era built around human agency and economic opportunity could look like, and what it will take to get there.

  • Michele Jawando, CEO, Omidyar Network
  • Melissa Koide, Founder & CEO, FinRegLab

9:30 – 10:00 a.m.

A Conversation with Sen. Mike Rounds

Sen. Rounds (South Dakota), a member of the Banking, Armed Services, and Intelligence Committees; Chairman of SASC’s Cybersecurity Subcommittee; and a longtime voice on AI policy, shares his read on the post-midterm agenda: how Washington should respond to AI-enabled cyber threats, what it will take to protect financial institutions large and small, and how communities in the middle of the country can share in AI’s gains. He’ll also discuss where he sees real openings for bipartisan legislation in 2027.

  • Sen. Mike Rounds, U.S. Senator for South Dakota
  • Dan Gorfine, Founder & CEO, Gattaca Horizons

10:00 – 10:30 a.m.

Coffee & Networking Break

10:30 – 10:50 a.m.

Banks, AI, and the Communities They Serve

For decades, banks have deepened their relationships and impact in the communities where they operate to better serve their customers. Trust is the bedrock of these connections, and must be maintained even as technology may replace some human interactions. As advanced technologies and AI-driven innovations reshape people’s financial lives, their jobs, and the economy, this conversation will explore the evolving role of banks, and what it takes to stay a relationship-driven institution.

  • Andy Navarrete, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Enterprise Affairs at Capital One
  • Leigh Phillips, President and CEO, SaverLife

10:50 – 11:10 a.m.

AI, Communities, and Economic Opportunity 

AI has dramatically, and rapidly, changed the tenor and stakes of conversations around jobs, electricity, water, and scientific discovery – and communities are grappling with what it means for their futures. At the center of the debates is a fundamental question: at a time of rapid economic and societal change, how can we ensure AI expands opportunity for households, small businesses, and communities?

  • Chris Lehane, Chief Global Affairs Officer, OpenAI 
  • Leo Schwartz, Reporter, The Information

11:10 – 11:35 a.m.

Putting the Consumer First in Agentic Commerce

When an AI agent shops and pays on your behalf, whose side is it on? Affirm and Consumer Reports agree it should be yours. As agents start making real purchase decisions, the hard part isn’t completing the transaction. It’s making the right one for the person behind it. Leaders from both organizations discuss what acting in the consumer’s interest should look like when software is the one doing the buying, what they’ve learned about how AI handles payment decisions, and why getting this right takes the whole industry.

  • Max Levchin, Founder & CEO, Affirm
  • Dan Leininger, Director, Experimental Engineering, Consumer Reports

11:35 – 11:50 a.m.

Can AI Help Households Get Ahead?

As AI agents begin acting on people’s behalf, competition for the customer relationship may shift from who holds deposits to who makes decisions about people’s money. One banking leader makes the case that banks are best positioned to earn that trust, and explains what it takes to build AI that customers will let act for them.

  • Celia Edwards Karam, President of Retail Bank, Capital One

11:50 – 12:50 p.m.

Lunch

12:50 – 1:10 p.m.

The Case for Personal Financial Agents

What does it actually look like to be an American managing money today, and what would it take for a personal agent to help? At a moment when some younger adults are increasingly pessimistic about their economic futures and affordability and stability concerns are paramount, people are looking for more than just financial advice. This conversation will explore how personal financial agents can help people balance their needs, constraints, and goals to make better day-to-day decisions and build lasting economic stability. 

  • Frank Rotman, Founding Partner, 37Maru
  • Vikas Raj, Managing Partner, ResilienceVC

1:10 – 1:45 p.m.

What People Are Really Asking AI About Their Money

Millions of people are already turning to AI tools for help managing their money. Builders and researchers will share what users are already asking chatbots and agents, and what happens as AI moves from advising on financial decisions to making and executing them. 

  • Mariel Beasley, Head of Product & Insights at SaverLife
  • Ethan Bloch, Product Lead, Personal Finance, OpenAI
  • Fiona Greig, Global Head of Investor Research and Policy, Vanguard

1:45 – 2:30 p.m.

Guardrails, Risk, and Protection for Personal Financial Agents

As personal financial agents move from advising people to acting on their behalf, new questions about risk and protection are becoming more urgent. What challenges can technology and market practice solve for and where do policy frameworks need to be adjusted?  This panel will discuss key questions such as confirming that agents are acting at a consumer’s direction and liability when things go wrong. 

  • Melissa Feldsher, Head of Consumer Payments, Trust & Security and Open Banking, JPMorganChase
  • Dan Murphy, Partner, Allon Advisors 
  • Sam Swartz, Head of Policy, Stripe
  • Moderator: Kelly Thompson Cochran, Chief Program Officer, FinRegLab

2:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Afternoon Networking Break

2:55 – 3:40 p.m.

Demos & Discussion

Watch demos and participate in discussions with startup leaders and innovators in financial services, covering topics including personal financial management, identity and cybersecurity, deploying AI inside regulated financial institutions, and risk management.

Theater (Lower Level): How are agents transforming people’s financial management?

  • Shivani Poddar, Founder, Wajo AI
  • Isha Bhatnagar, Co-Founder & CEO, Beltic
  • Moderator: Dan Murphy, Partner, Allon Advisors

Multipurpose Room: How are financial services providers serving their customers better, faster, and cheaper with AI?

  • Guy Assad, Co-Founder & CEO, Clerkie
  • Emily Pierson, Head of Outcomes, Casap Technologies, Inc.
  • Moderator: Jay Budzik, Senior Vice President, AI Model Development and Operations, Fifth Third Bank

Hall of Dreams: How are banks building and using next generation models to better identify relationships in their data?

  • Oban MacTavish, Co-Founder & CEO, Spade
  • Léo Grinsztajn, Founding Research Scientist, Prior Labs
  • Moderator: Michael Hsu, Co-Chair, MLCommons Financial Services Working Group

3:50 – 4:15 p.m.

Safeguarding Consumers in an AI-Driven Economy

As New York’s RAISE Act nears implementation and states move to set their own guardrails for frontier AI, what obligations follow for the model builders and businesses deploying these tools in an increasingly agentic economy? Acting Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services Kaitlin Asrow will discuss transparency requirements, evaluation, and enforcement as the agency works to safeguard workers and consumers.

  • Kaitlin Asrow, Acting Superintendent, New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) 
  • Melissa Koide, Founder & CEO, FinRegLab

4:15 – 4:45 p.m.

Fireside Chat: Neel Kashkari, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and Catherine Rampell, The Bulwark

A conversation around how AI is reshaping the U.S. economy and financial system, and its implications for productivity, employment, financial stability, and monetary policy.

  • Neel Kashkari, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis 
  • Catherine Rampell, Economics Editor, The Bulwark

4:45 – 4:50 p.m.

End of Day Remarks

  • Melissa Koide, Founder & CEO, FinRegLab 

4:50 – 6:15 p.m.

Networking Reception in the Hall of Generations

Following the program, please join us in the Hall of Generations for light bites and cocktails, a chance to connect with fellow guests and continue the conversation.

Thursday, November 19, 2026

8:00 a.m.

Registration & Coffee

8:25 – 8:30 a.m.

Welcome Remarks

  • Colin Colter, Senior Research Analyst, FinRegLab

8:30 – 9:00 a.m.

A Conversation with Rep. Bill Foster

Rep. Foster, a physicist and the top Democrat on the House Financial Institutions Subcommittee, discusses the House’s post mid-term agenda in light of AI’s growing impacts on financial services, consumer protection, and cybersecurity. He’ll discuss making AI work for households and small businesses, the importance of bolstering defenses against fraud and scams, and how to manage the risks of agentic finance.

  • Rep. Bill Foster, U.S. Representative, Illinois’s 11th Congressional District
  • Megan Hannigan, Managing Principal, FS Vector

9:00 – 9:20 a.m.

Fireside Chat with Scott Kupor

Director Kupor of the Superintelligence Task Force on how government and industry can chart a safe, innovative, and broadly shared path for U.S. AI policy.

  • Scott Kupor, Vice Chair, Super Intelligence Task Force; Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management 
  • Alissa Kratsios, Head of Global Policy, Ramp

9:20 – 9:50 a.m.

Trust and Verification in Cybersecurity and Identity Management

AI is reshaping how financial institutions operate, from autonomous agents writing code to deepfakes and synthetic identities driving fraud. The tools to manage external threats and internal defensive systems are maturing just as fast. This session asks how organizations can assess and monitor agents as verification and identity become increasingly central to protect firms, enable secure agentic commerce, and safeguard consumers. 

  • Paul Grewal, Chief Legal & Global Affairs Officer, Cognition AI
  • Rick Song, Co-Founder & CEO, Persona
  • Moderator: Sigal Mandelker, Ribbit Capital

9:50 – 10:10 a.m.

Open Weights Models & Customization in Financial Services

Open weights models have become increasingly important and competitive alongside proprietary options in the past year in particular. How are financial institutions choosing which approach to take for different use cases, and are those decisions different within large and small institutions? This conversation will focus on what people inside institutions need to know, understand, and manage about model choice, customization, and how research partnerships can help them stay on top of technology changes as the pace continues to accelerate.

  • Prem Natarajan, EVP, Chief Enterprise AI Officer and Chief Scientist, Capital One
  • Hans Morris, Managing Partner, NYCA Partners

10:10 – 10:35 a.m.

Coffee & Networking Break

10:35 – 11:20 a.m.

Benchmarks, Evaluations, and Guardrails for Agentic AI

Testing AI agents can be even more challenging than previous technologies because agents may make judgment calls and take actions. How do we know they are reliable and respect their guardrails? Speakers will explore different approaches to testing and validation –  from a financial health benchmark for personal financial advice to a taxonomy and new testing infrastructure for evaluating AI agents – and share lessons learned in testing to date. Credible testing and validation are critical for firms, regulators, and consumers to trust AI advice and actions.

  • Henry Bradley, Member of Research Staff, Vals AI
  • Miranda Bogen, Chief Technologist, Center for Democracy & Technology 
  • Terah Lyons, Global Head of AI & Data Policy, JPMorganChase
  • Michael Hsu, Co-Chair, MLCommons Financial Services Working Group
  • Moderator: Kabir Kumar, Partner, Ecosystem, Flourish Ventures

11:20 – 11:40 a.m.

The AI Economy: A New Era for Entrepreneurship

AI is changing what it takes to turn an idea into a revenue generating business. Against a backdrop of increased business formation and the rise of solopreneurship, AI is reshaping business models, enabling smaller teams to do more and reach global markets, and helping startups and small businesses detect and combat fraud. Drawing on emerging research from the United States and abroad, speakers will discuss how companies and policymakers can help startups and small businesses seize these opportunities while navigating new risks.

  • Eileen O’Mara, Vice Chair, Stripe
  • Brendan Bordelon, Senior Tech Reporter, POLITICO and Co-Author, Decoded

11:40 – 11:55 a.m.

Follow the Money: What Business Spending Reveals About AI Adoption

Drawing on real-time spend data, an economist will share which businesses are investing in AI, how adoption is shaping hiring and growth, and what it means for entrepreneurs and businesses. 

  • Ara Kharazian, Lead Economist, Ramp
  • Karla Renschler, Director of Small Business Research, FinRegLab

11:55 – 12:20 p.m.

AI Agents Shopping Online and the Stakes for Small Businesses

As AI agents increasingly recommend, shop, and make purchases on behalf of consumers, sellers of all sizes are contemplating how that may change their business. Traditional marketing and web strategies, payment process, chargebacks, and customer loyalty schemes are being upended. What do small businesses, in particular, need to do to succeed? Speakers will discuss what all parties processing an agentic transaction need to know, and what frictions need to be addressed, for those parties to trust the agent.

  • Tom Adams, Chief Technology Officer, Adyen
  • Jalpesh Chitalia, VP Growth Products, Visa
  • Moderator: Mitch Hochberg, General Counsel, OnePay

12:20 – 1:05 p.m.

Lunch

1:15 – 2:05 p.m.

Demos & Discussion

Watch demos and participate in discussions with startup leaders and innovators in financial services, covering topics including AI compliance, identification verification, internal risks, and external threats.

Theater (Lower Level): How are enterprise AI agents built, tested, and deployed?

  • Haitham Shahin, Deployed Engineering, US Federal, LangChain
  • Paul Grewal, Chief Legal & Global Affairs Officer, Cognition AI
  • Moderator: Philippe Mallette, Investor, Flourish Ventures

Multipurpose Room: How do we identify and manage AI agents and their permissions?

  • Tom Wells, Chief Risk Officer, Primitive
  • Rick Song, Co-Founder & CEO, Persona
  • Moderator: Melissa Netram, Global Head of Policy Impact and Stakeholder Advocacy, Block

Hall of Dreams: How are compliance and risk management changing to manage AI – and where can AI itself help?

  • Kareem Saleh, Founder & CEO, FairPlay AI
  • Nicholas Schmidt, Founder & CTO, SolasAI
  • Moderator: Alex Acree, Chief Legal Officer, Unit

2:15 – 2:45 p.m.

Closing Conversation with Michael S. Barr

Governor Michael S. Barr closes the Symposium with a conversation on how AI could reshape work, expand financial opportunity, and test the trust our financial system depends on.

  • Michael S. Barr, Member, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 
  • Catherine Rampell, Economics Editor, The Bulwark