Regulatory Recap: August 2026

With the summer Congressional recess nearing its end, the midterm election cycle coming into sharper focus, and regulators beginning to set out priorities for the next fiscal year, we can anticipate a full calendar of issues to be considered.

And August itself was no slowdown. Highlights of regulatory activity during this past month include:

• A governmentwide focus on fraud, including the launch of a National Fraud Detection Center (DOJ and many other agencies), announcement on the enforcement priorities of the DOJ’s Fraud Division, and the introduction of a new website tracking the activities of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.
• Steps to gear up for quantum computing, including formation of the Quantum-Readiness Task Force (a public-private initiative led by Treasury), and new research papers from NIST highlighting technology advances.  
• Controls to mitigate cyber-related threats, including a Presidential Memorandum to enhance capabilities to combat cybercrime, “best practices” to enhance cybersecurity effectiveness (NIST, FINRA), and an analysis of software-related vulnerabilities “before AI-enabled vulnerability discovery becomes more widespread” (CISA).
• Actions unique to financial services, including proposals to implement the GENIUS Act (Treasury) and to establish market structure for investment contracts involving crypto assets (SEC), guidance related to prediction markets (CFTC) and examinations (FDIC), and statements on shareholder proposals (SEC) and de novo chartering (OCC).

See more in this KPMG Regulatory Insights Regulatory Recap for August 2026.