# America's AI Action Plan: America's AI Action Plan

Source: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/americas-ai-action-plan-2025
Last updated: Oct 5, 2026

America's AI Action Plan, released by the White House on July 23, 2025 under EO 14179, is a three-pillar plan (accelerate AI innovation, build American AI infrastructure, lead in international AI diplomacy and security) listing recommended policy actions for federal agencies. Its financial-services content is thin: it recommends regulatory sandboxes or AI Centers of Excellence 'enabled by regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)', and says that 'regulators should explore the use of evaluations in their application of existing law to AI systems'. It names no bank regulator, creates no obligations for banks, and tells OMB to identify rules that hinder AI and NIST to revise the AI Risk Management Framework to remove references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change.

## At a glance

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Authority | [White House](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/white-house) |
| Type | Framework |
| Status | In force |
| Published | Jul 23, 2025 |
| Effective | Jul 23, 2025 |
| Applies to | Federal agencies, which the plan assigns recommended policy actions. It is not a regulation and binds no private party; banks are not mentioned as a sector, and no federal banking regulator (Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC) or the CFPB is named. The SEC appears once, as an enabler of regulatory sandboxes. |
| Official text | https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf |

## Key points

- Structure: Pillar I, Accelerate AI Innovation; Pillar II, Build American AI Infrastructure; Pillar III, Lead in International AI Diplomacy and Security.
- Pillar I, 'Remove Red Tape and Onerous Regulation': OMB, consistent with EO 14192, is to work with all agencies to identify, revise or repeal regulations, rules, guidance documents, policy statements and interagency agreements that unnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment; OSTP is to launch a Request for Information on regulations that hinder AI.
- Pillar I also tells OMB to consider a state's AI regulatory climate in AI-related discretionary funding decisions, the FCC to evaluate whether state AI regulations interfere with its Communications Act authorities, and the FTC to review prior investigations, orders and consent decrees so they do not 'unduly burden AI innovation'.
- Pillar I, 'Enable AI Adoption': establish regulatory sandboxes or AI Centers of Excellence where enterprises can deploy and test AI tools, 'enabled by regulatory agencies such as' the FDA and the SEC, with NIST support; NIST-led domain-specific efforts on national standards.
- Pillar I, 'Ensure that Frontier AI Protects Free Speech and American Values': NIST is to revise the AI Risk Management Framework 'to eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change'.
- Pillar I, 'Build an AI Evaluations Ecosystem': 'Over time, regulators should explore the use of evaluations in their application of existing law to AI systems'; NIST and CAISI to publish evaluation guidelines.
- Critical-infrastructure cybersecurity: DHS to establish an AI Information Sharing and Analysis Center (AI-ISAC) with CAISI and the Office of the National Cyber Director to share AI-security threat information across critical infrastructure sectors.
- No section addresses banking, credit decisioning, fair lending or model risk; the Treasury Department appears in the plan on AI-literacy tax guidance.

## What changed for banks

The Action Plan turned EO 14179's direction into a list of agency actions. For banks its significance is indirect: it frames federal supervisors' deregulatory posture, and Treasury has cited it when releasing financial-sector AI resources in 2026 (an AI Lexicon and the Financial Services AI Risk Management Framework). It does not change any existing AI-relevant bank obligation.

## Use cases it governs

- [AI governance (general)](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/by-use-case#governance-general)
- [Generative & agentic AI](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/by-use-case#generative-agentic-ai)
- [Cybersecurity](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/by-use-case#cybersecurity)
- [Model risk management](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/by-use-case#model-risk)

## What does America's AI Action Plan require of banks?

America's AI Action Plan requires nothing of banks. Released July 23, 2025 under EO 14179, it is a list of recommended policy actions for federal agencies across three pillars: accelerating AI innovation, building AI infrastructure, and leading in international AI diplomacy and security. The parts a bank should know are the instruction to OMB to identify, revise or repeal rules and guidance that unnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment, the SEC's named role in enabling regulatory sandboxes, the statement that regulators should explore the use of evaluations in applying existing law to AI systems, and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework revision. The plan does not mention banks, credit, lending or model risk, and does not name the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC or CFPB.

| Rule | Authority | What it requires | Status | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pillar I — Remove Red Tape and Onerous Regulation (OMB) | [White House](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/white-house) | OMB, with all Federal agencies, is to identify, revise or repeal regulations, rules, memoranda, administrative orders, guidance documents, policy statements and interagency agreements that unnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment. | Recommended from July 23, 2025 | [America's AI Action Plan](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/americas-ai-action-plan-2025) |
| Pillar I — Remove Red Tape and Onerous Regulation (state funding, FCC, FTC) | [White House](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/white-house) | OMB to consider a state's AI regulatory climate in AI-related discretionary funding, the FCC to evaluate whether state AI regulations interfere with its Communications Act authorities, and the FTC to review prior investigations and orders that may burden AI innovation. | Recommended from July 23, 2025 | [America's AI Action Plan](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/americas-ai-action-plan-2025) |
| Pillar I — Enable AI Adoption (regulatory sandboxes) | [SEC](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/sec) | Establish regulatory sandboxes or AI Centers of Excellence where enterprises can deploy and test AI tools while committing to open sharing of data and results, enabled by regulators such as the FDA and the SEC with NIST support. | Recommended from July 23, 2025 | [America's AI Action Plan](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/americas-ai-action-plan-2025) |
| Pillar I — Ensure that Frontier AI Protects Free Speech and American Values (NIST AI RMF) | [NIST](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/nist) | NIST, through the Department of Commerce, is to revise the AI Risk Management Framework to eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change. | Recommended from July 23, 2025 | [NIST AI RMF 1.0](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/nist-ai-100-1) |
| Pillar I — Build an AI Evaluations Ecosystem | [NIST](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/nist) | NIST, including CAISI, to publish guidelines for agencies to evaluate AI systems for compliance with existing law; the plan says regulators should explore the use of evaluations in applying existing law to AI systems. | Recommended from July 23, 2025 | [America's AI Action Plan](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/americas-ai-action-plan-2025) |
| Pillar II — Bolster Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (AI-ISAC) | [White House](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/white-house) | DHS to establish an AI Information Sharing and Analysis Center, with CAISI and the Office of the National Cyber Director, to share AI-security threat information across critical infrastructure sectors, and to issue guidance to private entities on remediating AI-specific vulnerabilities. | Recommended from July 23, 2025 | [America's AI Action Plan](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/americas-ai-action-plan-2025) |
| Follow-on: Treasury AI Lexicon and FS AI RMF (February 2026) | [U.S. Treasury](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/treasury) | Treasury released a shared AI Lexicon and the Financial Services AI Risk Management Framework 'in support of the President's AI Action Plan', developed with FBIIC and the FSSCC. | February 19, 2026 | [Treasury FS AI RMF and AI Lexicon (Feb 2026)](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/treasury-fs-ai-rmf-and-ai-lexicon-2026) |

The plan is a menu of federal actions, not a regulatory text, and its authority comes from EO 14179. It is deliberately skeptical of regulation: its Pillar I introduction says 'AI is far too important to smother in bureaucracy at this early stage, whether at the state or Federal level'. At the same time it says the Federal government should 'not interfere with states' rights to pass prudent laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation', which is the line EO 14365 later operationalised against state AI laws.

For financial services the plan operates mainly through process rather than substance. It does not propose any bank-specific rule or relief, and it does not name a prudential regulator. The SEC reference is to sandboxes alongside the FDA. The practical financial-sector consequences since July 2025 have come from Treasury (the February 2026 AI Lexicon and FS AI RMF, and the FSOC AI Innovation Series) rather than from the plan's text.

The plan's evaluation theme is the one most relevant to model validation. It says rigorous evaluations are 'a critical tool in defining and measuring AI reliability and performance in regulated industries' and that regulators should explore using evaluations when applying existing law. It stops short of any supervisory expectation.

### What this means in practice

- Treat the Action Plan as direction of travel for federal agencies, not a compliance obligation: no bank requirement flows from it.
- Watch the agencies named in it: OMB's rule review, the SEC for sandbox activity involving broker-dealer or advisory affiliates, and NIST for the AI RMF revision.
- Keep existing model risk and validation practice; the plan's evaluations language supports, rather than replaces, validation and testing expectations.
- Use Treasury's FS AI RMF and AI Lexicon, which implement the plan for financial institutions, as the practical benchmark.
- Do not assume the plan's anti-regulation tone relaxes state law or fair-lending duties; those are addressed in EO 14365 and the states' own laws.

## FAQ

### Does America's AI Action Plan apply to banks?

Not directly. It is a plan of recommended federal policy actions and does not regulate private firms. It does not mention banks or name the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC or CFPB. Its main bank-adjacent items are the sandboxes the SEC is expected to help enable, OMB's review of rules that hinder AI, and the NIST AI RMF revision.

### What does the AI Action Plan say about financial regulators?

Only one financial regulator appears: the plan says regulatory sandboxes or AI Centers of Excellence would be 'enabled by regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'. It also says regulators should explore the use of evaluations in applying existing law to AI systems.

### When was the AI Action Plan published?

The White House released it on July 23, 2025. EO 14179 had required the plan within 180 days of January 23, 2025.

### Is the AI Action Plan binding?

No. It sets out recommended policy actions for agencies; it is not a statute or a regulation and creates no obligations for banks.

## Related documents

- [EO 14365](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/eo-14365) — Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence (Dec 11, 2025)
- [EO 14179](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/eo-14179) — Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (Jan 23, 2025)
- [SB 947](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/ca-sb-947-2026) — Employment: Automated Decision Systems (No Robo Bosses Act) (Sep 30, 2026)
- [Bailey: Frontier AI and the Question of Governance (Sep 2026)](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/boe-bailey-frontier-ai-governance-2026) — Frontier AI and the Question of Governance — Governor Andrew Bailey (Sep 30, 2026)
- [AB 1609](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/ca-ab-1609-2026) — Customer Service Chatbots (Right to Human Customer Service Act) (Sep 28, 2026)
- [Atkins remarks at Investor Advisory Committee (Sep 2026)](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/sec-atkins-iac-ai-disclosure-remarks-2026-09) — Remarks at the SEC Investor Advisory Committee Meeting on AI Technologies and the Public Markets Information Ecosystem (Sep 10, 2026)
- [FCA multi-firm review: Frontier AI and cyber resilience (Sep 2026)](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/fca-frontier-ai-cyber-resilience-2026) — Frontier AI and Cyber Resilience (Sep 2, 2026)
- [FSB Chair's letter to G20 (Aug 2026)](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-regulation/documents/fsb-chair-letter-g20-august-2026) — FSB Chair's letter to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors: August 2026 — risks arising from frontier artificial intelligence models (Aug 31, 2026)

Last reviewed Oct 5, 2026. Cite the official text (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf) for the rule and this page for the summary and dates.

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