Finance

Donald Trump selects Kevin Hassett to lead National Economic Council

Published

6 months ago

November 26, 2024

White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett addresses reporters during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. February 22, 2018.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

President-elect Donald Trump picked Kevin Hassett to lead the National Economic Council, a role that puts him at the center of the administration’s policy-making discussions from trade to taxes and deregulation.

The move brings Trump closer to rounding out his economic team, with U.S. trade representative being the last of the key positions left.

Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social.

During Trump’s first administration, Hassett served as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for two years, supporting the Republican’s corporate tax cuts and defending Trump’s punitive tariffs.

The 62-year-old Hassett also worked with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on immigration and backed a move to end waivers of sanctions for countries that buy Iranian oil.

The appointment came as Trump renewed his vow to raise tariffs by an additional 10% on all Chinese goods coming into the U.S. and impose tariffs of 25% on all products from Mexico and Canada. Such a move would end a regional free trade agreement.

Trump is set to be inaugurated as the next U.S. president on Jan. 20. He cited illegal immigration and illicit drug trade as reasons for the tariffs.

Hassett previously served as a scholar of fiscal policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank before Trump nominated him to the White House role in 2017.

Late last week, Trump signaled his intention to nominate Scott Bessent, founder of hedge fund Key Square Group and a seasoned market pro, as his Treasury secretary.

Finance

UK’s FCA teams up with Nvidia to let banks experiment with AI

Published

3 hours ago

June 9, 2025

Business Finance News

Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

LONDON — Britain’s financial services watchdog on Monday announced a new tie-up with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia to let banks safely experiment with artificial intelligence.

The Financial Conduct Authority said it will launch a so-called Supercharged Sandbox that will “give firms access to better data, technical expertise and regulatory support to speed up innovation.”

Starting from October, financial services institutions in the U.K. will be allowed to experiment with AI using Nvidia’s accelerated computing and AI Enterprise Software products, the watchdog said in a press release.

The initiative is designed for firms in the “discovery and experiment phase” with AI, the FCA noted, adding that a separate live testing service exists for firms further along in AI development.

“This collaboration will help those that want to test AI ideas but who lack the capabilities to do so,” Jessica Rusu, the FCA’s chief data, intelligence and information officer, said in a statement. “We’ll help firms harness AI to benefit our markets and consumers, while supporting economic growth.”

The FCA’s new sandbox addresses a key issue for banks, which have faced challenges shipping advanced new AI tools to their customers amid concerns over risks around privacy and fraud.

Large language models from the likes of OpenAI and Google send data back to overseas facilities — and privacy regulators have raised the alarm over how this information is stored and processed. There have meanwhile been several instances of malicious actors using generative AI to scam people.

Nvidia is behind the graphics processing units, or GPUs, used to train and run powerful AI models. The company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, is expected to give a keynote talk at a tech conference in London on Monday morning.

Last year, HSBC’s generative AI lead, Edward Achtner, told a London tech conference he sees “a lot of success theater” in finance when it comes to artificial intelligence — hinting that some financial services firms are touting advances in AI without tangible product innovations to show for it.

He added that, while banks like HSBC have used AI for many years, new generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT come with their own unique compliance risks.