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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sat before the House Financial Services Committee on September 15 to deliver his annual testimony on the state of the international financial system. The message was straightforward: the US dollar remains king, and the administration intends to keep it that way.
Bessent framed the hearing around America’s leadership at institutions like the IMF and World Bank, while painting a picture of an economy firing on most cylinders. Over one million private sector jobs created under President Trump. More than 64 million tax returns filed claiming benefits from recent tax cuts. Rising real wages.
The dollar’s reserve status and what’s propping it up
Bessent’s central thesis was that the dollar’s dominance as the world’s primary reserve currency isn’t an accident or a product of favorable exchange rate swings. It’s the result, he argued, of deliberate policy choices that have driven an increase in dollar-denominated transactions globally.
The 10-year Treasury yield briefly exceeded 5% during the hearing period, a level that tends to make both bond investors and mortgage holders uncomfortable. A 5% yield on the benchmark Treasury note reflects rising borrowing costs for the US government and signals that the market is demanding more compensation for holding American debt. For context, the 10-year yield spent most of the post-2008 era below 3%.
Bessent didn’t introduce any new policy proposals to address the yield spike. The hearing was a standard oversight affair, not a venue for legislative bombshells.
AI, cybersecurity, and the topics that got airtime
Beyond the macroeconomic headliners, the hearing ventured into territory that increasingly dominates financial policy discussions: artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
Committee members pressed Bessent on the role AI is playing across the financial sector, from algorithmic trading to fraud detection to the thornier question of systemic risk.
Cybersecurity also drew attention. The Treasury’s engagement with major banks on their cyber defenses reflects an escalating threat landscape. The 2023 ransomware attack on ICBC’s US arm, which briefly disrupted Treasury market trading, demonstrated just how vulnerable the plumbing of global finance can be.
Neither topic produced concrete policy announcements.
What was missing from the conversation
For an oversight hearing on the international financial system in 2026, one notable absence stood out: digital assets received no meaningful new regulatory framework or policy guidance.
Meanwhile, the macroeconomic signals from the hearing cut both ways for crypto. A strong dollar and rising yields tend to reduce the appeal of non-yielding assets like Bitcoin. On the other hand, the job growth and consumer spending data Bessent cited suggest an economy that’s still expanding.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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