On September 18, the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing to examine the increase in financial fraud and scams impacting consumers. Lawmakers expressed concern over the rising prevalence of check fraud, identity theft, and AI-enabled impersonation schemes, warning that these crimes are inflicting billions in losses and undermining confidence in the financial system. Members noted that regulatory enforcement has lagged the pace of increasingly sophisticated schemes, and stressed the need for stronger, more coordinated federal action.

In conjunction with the hearing, the Committee sent a letter to the Fed requesting information to assess the Fed’s use of its existing authorities to mitigate payments fraud. Specifically, the letter seeks a list of consumer outreach efforts, a plan for addressing emerging fraud schemes, an assessment of whether the Fed’s structure hinders its ability to protect consumers, and a summary of comments received in response to the June 2025 request for information on payments fraud. The Committee emphasized that this information is necessary to evaluate whether structural reforms at the Fed or new legislation are warranted, and urged increased collaboration amongst the Fed, the FDIC, and the OCC to strengthen consumer protection and safeguard the payments system.