Washington, DC - Today, Representatives Bill Foster (D-IL) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) led Members on the House Financial Services Committee in calling on the Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Paul Atkins, to explain what oversight, guidance, and investor protections are in place as brokerage firms begin allowing AI agents to make autonomous trades on behalf of retail investors, and whether the agency has evaluated the risks these systems pose to market integrity and consumer protection.

The letter also asks Chairman Atkins to provide clarity on the legal responsibilities of broker-dealers, AI developers, and AI agents themselves, and whether existing securities laws are sufficient to regulate agentic trading or if additional action from Congress would be needed.

In the letter to Chairman Atkins, the Members wrote:

"While generative AI and associated agents have the potential to help investors make faster and better-informed decisions, the facilitation of agentic trading by retail brokerage platforms raises serious questions for investor protection, broker-dealer responsibilities, market integrity, and the accountability of AI developers.

"The AI firms developing and deploying these agents have thus far operated largely outside the securities regulatory framework, even though their systems are making or enabling consequential investment decisions on behalf of retail investors.

"It is essential that this technology be delivered in a manner that preserves the protections investors expect in regulated financial markets, and not as a tool to conceal conflicts of interest, evade broker-dealer responsibilities, manipulate markets, or provide unsound investment advice."

This letter was cosigned by Representatives Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Jim Himes (D-CT), Sean Casten (D-IL), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Brittany Pettersen (D-CO), and Sylvia Garcia (D-TX). A full copy of the letter can be found here.

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