Bisignano Tells Senate SSA Hearing: ‘I’ve Spent My Career Protecting PII’

Fiserv CEO and Chairman of the Board Frank Bisignano is among the Trump administration nominees being considered by the Senate Finance Committee to join the Social Security Administration (SSA).

On Tuesday (March 25), Bisignano, who was nominated to succeed acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek, appeared on Capitol Hill before the Senate Finance Committee to answer questions about how he’d tackle the issues affecting the agency.

In his remarks, Bisignano pledged to improve the agency’s efficiency.

“Fundamentally, Social Security is a payments-based, customer-facing program,” he said. “On the phone, I’m committed to reducing wait times and providing beneficiaries with a better experience. Waiting 20-minutes-plus to get an answer will be [a thing] of yesteryear.”

“The ability to receive payments on time and accurately is job one. The ability to process any type of claim we receive is job one,” Bisignano said.

Another goal he mentioned is reducing the SSA’s error rate. He cited an Office of the Inspector General report, which said that from fiscal years 2015 to 2022, the SSA paid approximately $71.8 billion in improper payments, or less than 1%.

“I think [the percentage] should be decimal points to the right,” he said.

Privatization, Sensitive Data and Reform

The issue of Social Security privatization has been a key point of discussion during Bisignano’s nomination process, especially considering his extensive private-sector career in senior leadership operations and technology roles at companies like First Data Corp. (which merged with Fiserv), JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., sought assurance that Bisignano wouldn’t pursue policies that would privatize aspects of the Social Security program.

Bisignano replied: “I’ve never thought about privatizing. It’s not a word that anybody’s ever talked to me about, and I don’t see this institution as anything other than a government agency that’s run for the benefit of the American public.”

Given Bisignano’s background in FinTech — where customer data security is a mission-critical priority — questions have arisen about his stance on access to sensitive Social Security data. The SSA handles vast amounts of personal and financial information, making data security a critical concern.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who entered into the record a statement by a whistleblower who expressed concerns about Bisignano working closely with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, asked if he would “lock DOGE out of Social Security databases.”

“I’ve spent my career protecting PII (personally identifiable information) in the largest institutions. I think it’s of the utmost importance for PII to be protected. … There’s lots of databases, but PII will not be exposed,” he replied.

According to Oklahoma Senator James Lankford (R), the SSA disability determination process can take anywhere from two to three years.  When he asked what could be done, Bisignano said, “My first objective would be to process engineer it from front to back to understand really what is taking what amount of time.”

“A person who maybe 30 years ago was determined to be disabled and wasn’t highly motivated by the system to be able to work, today we could do something different,” he added.

PYMNTS reported Bisignano’s stance on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to detect waste and fraud. Bisignano said AI could be used to cutting beneficiary phone wait times to one minute.

“[AI] can also help people within the organization answer questions better by bringing artificial intelligence to them to prompt them with the information they need,” he said.

There are also concerns about possible cost-cutting measures, and how those measures may affect beneficiaries, particularly vulnerable populations who rely heavily on Social Security benefits. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., mentioned Musk’s calls for cuts to Social Security and asked Bisignano if he’d support cutting “either one-third of the people off of the program or cut their benefits by a third.”

“Neither,” he replied.