Prior Programs
THE FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY & CYBERSECURITY CENTER'S RECENT PROGRAMS
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WEBINAR - OCTOBER 30 , 2025
9:00 AM - 12:15 pm
The Great Tech War:
Can We Optimize Innovation, Regulate AI, Protect Children and Address Social Media Content at the Same Time?
Join George Mason University’s (GMU) Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE), the Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center® (Center), GMU’s Center for Excellence in Government Cybersecurity Risk Management and Resilience (CRC), and GMU’s Costello College of Business, and a host of experts discussed important developments concerning the regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the regulation of children’s access to social media and restrictions on social media content.
REGULATING AI
The potential regulation of AI was a focus of the budget reconciliation act, as the Senate overwhelmingly rejected a House provision that would have imposed a 10-year moratorium on state regulation of AI. Given how fast AI is moving into all aspects of our lives this issue will not go away. The panel considerED this topic, including:
- State regulatory actions and pending initiatives
- The Administration’s policies and operational initiatives
- Deployment of machine learning and Artificial General Intelligence.
- Reacting to hostile power
- AI threats
- Governance needed to ensure human oversight and control of AI
"Singularity” – when AI surpasses/merges with human intelligence
- AI and intellectual property rights and principles
REGULATING THE INTERNET
Government attempts to restrict access to social media in efforts to protect children and requirements related to social media content have recently become major topics of controversy. The program will consider a range of recent developments, including:
- State actions to impose age verification requirements, parental consent, and design standards
- Content-neutrality mandates on social media platforms
- Challenges to state laws regarding hate speech, extremism, disinformation, foreign political involvement, and deepfakes during election periods
- Foreign government actions concerning internet speech and U.S. reactions
MODERATORS
Dr. Jean-Pierre Auffret, Director, Research Partnerships, Costello College of Business, GMU; Director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE), College of Engineering & Computing, GMU
Thomas P. Vartanian, Executive Director of the Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center®, Author, 200 Years of American Financial Panics, Crashes, Recessions and Depressions, And the Technology That Will Change It All
Robert H. Ledig, Managing Director of the Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center®
FACULTY
Adam Candeub – Acting General Counsel, Federal Communications Commission, Professor of Law & Director of the Intellectual Property, Information, and Communications Law Program, Michigan State University College of Law
Lena Cohen – Staff Technologist, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Ari Cohn – Lead Counsel, Tech Policy, FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression)
Mary Ann Franks – Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law, George Washington University Law School
Peyton Hornberger – Communications Director, The Alliance for Secure AI
Tommy Jones – Professor, Georgetown University McDonough School of Business; Chief Scientist, Foundation
Stephanie Joyce – Chief of Staff/Senior Vice President, Computer & Communications Industry Association
Jess Miers – Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, University of Akron School of Law
Gary Rinkerman – Partner, Pierson Ferdinand
Paul Taske – Co-Director NetChoice Litigation Center
VIEW THE PROGRAM HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLruE5GYm0FRLNXihsmT7PF1gB9fsTecvr
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LIVE PROGRAM - APRIL 17, 2025
“The Great Debate: How to Modernize Financial Regulation and Create Economic Stability in a Digital Age,”
8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at George Mason University and Online
The Program
The regulation of financial services in the U.S. is based on a bank-centric model established for the conditions that existed 90 years ago after the Great Depression. Today’s financial services world is far more diversified with less of it regulated. As a result, we continue to see events that seriously destabilize our financial system.
As the Administration considers the future of financial services regulation, it is time to evaluate how we can create a financial regulatory system that (i) reduces financial stability risks ignored by asymmetrical oversight, (ii) confronts known structural risks created by the digital economy and (iii) deploys and utilizes predictive artificial intelligence to deal with threats before they spiral out of control.
We heard from experts discussing the following elements of a establishing a financial regulatory structure that can promote economic growth, U.S. global competitiveness, financial stability, and protects investors and consumers, including:
- Why Don’t We See Financial Sector Crises Coming & How Do We Make Supervision Work Better?
- Time to Regulate Cryptocurrency? Investments, Money or Both?
- Regulation of Nonbank Financial Institutions and FinTechs
- Building a New Regulatory Model
- Rethinking Deposit Insurance – Uninsured Deposits and other Threats to Financial Stability
- Leveraging AI to Improve Financial Regulation
Our faculty was moderated by:
Dr. Jean-Pierre Auffret, Director, Research Partnerships, Costello College of Business, George Mason University; Director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE), College of Engineering & Computing, George Mason
Thomas P. Vartanian, Executive Director of the Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center, Author, 200 Years of American Financial Panics, Crashes, Recessions and Depressions, And the Technology That Will Change It All
Faculty experts included:
- Michele Alt, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Klaros Group, Former District Counsel, OCC
- Greg Baer, President & CEO, Bank Policy Institute
- Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO & Cofounder, Alliance for Innovative Regulation, Author, The case for placing AI at the heart of digitally robust financial regulation
- Jon Danielsson, Director of the Systemic Risk Centre, London School of Economics, Author, The Illusion of Control: Why Financial Crises Happen and What We Can (and Can’t) Do About It
- Coy Garrison, Partner, Steptoe LLP, Former Counsel to SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce
- Gary Gorton, Professor of Finance, Yale School of Management, Author, Misunderstanding Financial Crises: Why We Don’t See Them Coming
- William Isaac, Chairman, Secura/Isaac Group, Former Chairman FDIC, Author, Senseless Panic: How Washington Failed America
- Robert Ledig, Managing Director, Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center
- Caitlin Long, Chairman & Founder, The Cynosure Group, Former Vice Chair for Supervision, Federal Reserve Board
- Elizabeth McCaul, Former Member Supervisory Board, European Central Bank, Former Chair, New York State Banking Department and Superintendent of Banks
- Alex Pollock, Senior Fellow, Mises Institute, Author, Finance and Philosophy: Why We’re Always Surprised
- Randal Quarles, Chairman & Founder, The Cynosure Group, Former Vice Chair for Supervision, Federal Reserve Board
- John Reed Stark, John Reed Stark Consulting LLC, Former Chief, SEC Office of Internet Enforcement
- Dan Swislow, Director of Policy and Government Affairs, Mercury
- Alison Touhey, SVP, Bank Funding Policy, American Bankers Association
- Richard Wald, Vice Chairman, Emigrant Bank
- Todd Zywicki, Professor of Law, GMU Antonin Scalia Law School, Chair, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Task Force on Federal Consumer Financial Law
VIEW THE PROGRAM HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLruE5GYm0FRKrrc4_l2lZM6cz6G_FQl4z
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May 8, 2024
The Race to Regulate the Internet:
Should States or the Federal Government Set the Rules for Website Content, Child Protection and Personal Data Control?
A blockbuster group of luminaries debated the issues and predicted where online regulation will go
Presented in conjunction with George Mason University's Center for Assurance Research and Engineering and the School of Business
The program was moderated by technology experts:
Dr. Jean-Pierre Auffret, George Mason University’s Director, Research Partnerships, School of Business; Director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE), College of Engineering & Computing
Thomas P. Vartanian, Executive Director of the Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center, Author, The Unhackable Internet: How Rebuilding Cyberspace Can Create Real Security and Prevent Financial Collapse
Expert presenters included:
- Adam Candeub – Professor of Law & Director of the Intellectual Property, Information & Communications Law Program, Michigan State University Law School
- Michael Cheah – Advisor, The Internet Works
- Robert Coles, Head of Security Strategy, D S Smith, Former Chief Information Security Officer – Merrill Lynch, National Grid, GlaxoSmithKline
- Josh Devine – Missouri Solicitor General
- Alysa Hutnik – Partner, Kelly Drye
- Stephanie Joyce – Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President, Computer & Communications Industry Association
- Julia Mahoney - John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
- Michael McKell – Utah State Senator
- John Morris – Principal, U.S. Internet Policy and Advocacy, Internet Society
- Christopher Oswald – Executive Vice President, Head of Law, Ethics & Government Relations, Association of National Advertisers
- Michael Signorelli - Partner, Venable LLP
- Carl Szabo – Vice President & General Counsel, Net Choice
- Hayley Tsukayama – Associate Director of Legislative Activism, Electronic Frontier Foundation
To view the program in full, click on these links:
Panel 1:https://youtu.be/XCMODlibljI
Panel 2:https://youtu.be/OWhaSdtldGQ
Panel 3:https://youtu.be/_Zwi5zSa_RY
Full Event:https://youtu.be/5YBTmqFN7To
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May 4, 2023
Escalating Cyber Threats to the U.S Financial System:
Time to Think Outside the Box
George Mason University’s Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE), the Business School, and the Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center (Center), Mason’s School of Business,hosted a group of experts in executive roundtable discussions on the cybersecurity challenges facing the financial services sector and the solutions that should be pursued regarding:
- Financial system innovation and challenges of cybersecurity
- Geopolitics and national motivations for financial system innovation and development
- Crime and criminal enterprises and the financial system
- Role of multilateral institutions such as the IMF and World Bank
- New web concepts to decentralize and segregate financial system critical infrastructure
- Government initiatives to work with private industry
- More secure software, hardware and systems
- The path to global consensus
- The cybersecurity alternatives that financial services companies are developing
The faculty was moderated by cybersecurity experts:
- Jean-Pierre Auffret, George Mason University’s Director, Research Partnerships, School of Business; Director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE), College of Engineering & Computing
- Thomas P. Vartanian, Executive Director of the Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center
Keynote Address:
Brian Peretti, Director, Domestic and International Cyber Policy, Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection, U.S. Department of Treasury, will make Keynote Remarks
Cybersecurity Experts included:
- Stewart Baker, Of Counsel, Steptoe
- Emily Beam, Senior Vice President, Cyber Risk Institute
- John Carlson, Vice President, Cybersecurity Regulation and Resilience, ABA
- Robert Coles, Head of Security Strategy, D S Smith, Former Chief Information Security Officer – Merrill Lynch, National Grid, GlaxoSmithKline
- Steve Crocker, CEO and co-founder, Shinkuro
- James Dever, Cofounder and Principal, Lockhaven Solutions LLC; formerly U.S. Air Force Professor of Cyber Warfare
- John Geiringer, Barack Ferrazzano Kirshbaum & Nagelberg LLP
- Adam Golodner, Managing Partner, AMG Global Cyber Law, PLLC, CEO, Vortex Strategic Consulting, Co-Chair, Trusted Future
- Murray Kenyon, Cybersecurity Partnership Executive, U.S. Bank
- Jenny Menna, Vice President, Threat Management and Response, Humana
- Lisa Quest, Partner, Co-Head of the Public Sector and Policy Practice, Europe, Oliver Wyman, Co-author, Digital Trust: How Banks Can Secure Our Digital Identity; Joint Report with the International Banking Federation
- Craig Schwartz, Managing Director, fTLD Registry -.Bank
- Marilyn Smith, IT Consultant, Former Chief Information Officer - George Mason University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Scott Volmar, CEO, Intercomputer Network Corp
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December 7, 2022
* Executive Roundtable Discussion *
“Demystifying Artificial Intelligence: Its Impact on Finance and Regulation”
See the entire recorded program here:
https://fast.wistia.net/embed/channel/ur4k40a0hm?wchannelid=ur4k40a0hm&wvideoid=zmc47kj4me
President Biden’s recent Executive Memo on Artificial Intelligence, Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: Making Automated Systems Work for the American People, focuses on the growing influence of AI technologies. While AI can dramatically improve the delivery and regulation of financial services, novel algorithms and the ways that they are used add new complexities to compliance and the potential for inadvertent discrimination. That suggests the early adoption of standards and rules of engagement to ensure that Americans are protected from as much as they are assisted by AI.
Experts and regulators participating in the executive roundtable discussions were moderated by:
Thomas P. Vartanian
Executive Director, Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center
Brian Knight
Director of Innovation and Governance and a Senior Research Fellow, The Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Experts included:
Brad Blower, General Counsel, National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Neil Chilson, Senior Research Fellow, Technology and Innovation at Stand Together
Carol Evans, Deputy Fair Lending Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Dr. Mark Flood, Program Manager, Information Innovation Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Phillip Hurst, Assistant General Counsel, Card Data Sciences & Machine Learning, Capital One
Melissa Koide, CEO & Director, The FinReg Lab
Kevin Greenfield, Deputy Comptroller for Operational Risk Policy, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Tommy Jones, Senior Technology Architect, Enterprise Technologies, In-Q-Tel
Melissa Koide, CEO, FinRegLab
Brenda Leong, Partner, BNH AI
William Magnunson, Professor of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law
Matt Mittelsteadt, Visiting Research Fellow, Mercatus Center
Weifeng Zong, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center
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April 27, 2022
"THE IMPACT OF STABLECOINS ON FINANCIAL REGULATION, CONSUMERS AND POLITICS"
An Executive Roundtable discussion moderated by Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center (FTCC) Executive Director Thomas P. Vartanian and Conference on Consumer Finance Law (CCFL) Chairman James M. Milano with distinguished guests:
- Brian P. Brooks, CEO, Bitfury, former Acting Comptroller of the Currency
- Jelena McWilliams, former FDIC Chair
- Randal K. Quarles, Chairman, The Cynosure Group, former Vice Chairman for Supervision, Federal Reserve Board
Join the nearly 700 registrants of this program and watch it here:
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The Following Programs were presented through a program maintained at George Mason University's Scalia Law School