H.R. 1734: Preventing Deep Fake Scams Act

H.R. 1734, the Preventing Deep Fake Scams Act, is a study bill. It creates a temporary Task Force on Artificial Intelligence in the Financial Services Sector and gives it one job: tell Congress how AI is being used against bank and credit union customers, and what to do about it.

The task force pulls together every major federal financial regulator. Treasury chairs it, joined by the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Credit Union Administration, and FinCEN, the Treasury office that tracks financial crime. Each agency head can send a designee.

The bill's findings explain why voice matters. Many banks offer voice banking for security and convenience, and the bill says the popularity of social media has made video and audio of potential targets easier to obtain. The bill's concern is that a cloned voice could pass the same check your real one does.

The work runs on a fixed clock. Within 90 days of enactment, the task force must open a public comment request, and it must consult banks and credit unions of different sizes, the outside vendors that sell them AI tools, and independent AI experts. Within one year, it must deliver a report covering how institutions already defend against AI-driven fraud, the risks from bad actors using AI to steal data and identities, a list of best practices for protecting customers, and legislative and regulatory recommendations.

The report must also settle on shared definitions for terms like "generative AI," "machine learning," and "deep fakes," so agencies and banks stop talking past each other. Ninety days after the final report, the task force disbands. From enactment to shutdown, that is at most about 15 months.

Nothing in the bill changes what your bank must do on day one; any new rules would come later, from the recommendations it produces. It sets no penalties, requires no specific technology, and authorizes no dollar amount.