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OCC gives examiners a guide to assess AI and agents at US banks

Bulletin 2026-54 from the OCC, the regulator of US national banks, brings a supervisory framework for the use of “super intelligence” (the term the government now uses for AI). It creates no new requirements: it tells examiners to tailor supervision to the materiality of each use. Key points: AI is not a separate risk category; the intensity of controls should grow with the consequences of an agent's failure or misuse; and risk classification should consider consequences, how much autonomy was delegated and the degree of human oversight, not the model's technical sophistication.