In an annual oversight hearing on Capitol Hill today, major Wall Street banks faced questions from U.S. senators on issues ranging from how banks can help Americans struggling to keep pace with their credit payments to how they’re tackling the growing menace of cybersecurity breaches.

Citibank consistently invests in its cyber defense capabilities, Jane Fraser, chief executive at the $1.6 trillion bank, said, adding that Citi is currently spending close to “$1 billion a year,” to keep its networks safe. Fraser’s testimony also noted that the bank uses machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to guard against fraudulent activity.

In written testimonies published ahead of the hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the banks also made note of their AI implementations to help counter fraud and money laundering, and how digital platforms helped sustained their business during the pandemic-induced lockdowns.

“In 2020, more than 9 billion out of 10 billion total client interactions with Bank of America came through digital channels,” Brian Moynihan, chief executive at the bank, noted in his written testimony. He added that 84% of deposits to the $2.2 trillion bank came through the bank’s automated channels.

In addition, Bank of America’s AI-powered digital assistant, Erica, has “learned 60,000 new pandemic related intents,” which includes prompts such as “Erica, tell me about coronavirus relief options,” according to Moynihan’s statement.

Taking note of how banks can implement emerging technology like AI, Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf noted in his written testimony that AI “has the potential to help detect and prevent harm from bad actors and greatly enhance customer experience and financial inclusion.”

Scharf added that the $1.9 trillion bank is also involved in distributed ledger technology (DLT) research and will be announcing an internal settlement pilot soon that uses an internal DLT platform and will allow the bank to complete internal book transfers and payments within Wells Fargo’s global branch network. DLT systems enable the recording of asset transactions under which the record is maintained in multiple servers at the same time, thereby enabling cross-verification.

Meanwhile, Jamie Dimon, chief executive at JPMorgan Chase, highlighted the tech spend at the nation’s biggest bank. “At JPMorgan Chase, we invest over $700 million annually and dedicate thousands of employees to maintain our [cybersecurity] defenses,” Dimon said in his written testimony. He added that the $3 trillion bank uses AI in fraud and risk, operations and trading, among other areas.

Fraser’s testimony added that Citi was “one of the world’s first companies to develop our own set of ethical principles for artificial intelligence which aim to ensure effective governance, risk management and responsible innovation.”

While technology-related questions from the senators largely revolved around cybersecurity issues, the written testimonies demonstrated that major banks are developing an appetite for AI-related applications while also keeping an eye on the evolving cryptocurrency landscape.

Multiple senators also said they are inclined to engage with banks to tackle cyberthreats such as recent ransomware incidents, which are enabled by the use of cryptocurrency.