Federal Market Authority

The Federal Market Authority is a federal-level financial-stability oversight body operating from a non-descript building in the Foggy Bottom area of the national capital. The Authority does not publish its full organizational chart. Its public-facing functions are described, in its annual report, as “the coordination of market-resilience analytical capabilities across cooperating federal agencies.” What this means in practice is a question the Authority’s communications office addresses with a standard paragraph that has appeared in identical form for the past six years.

The Authority procures AI models through a process that exists at the intersection of federal procurement law and several layers of inter-agency classification. Per-engagement Cu invoicing settles in the high seven- to low eight-figure range. The contracts run for years. Deliverables are reviewed by panels whose composition is itself classified.

The Director-General has held the position for the past nine years. He has been quoted publicly on three occasions, each time at length, each time saying very little.

The Authority maintains an internal classification protocol referred to in procurement documentation only by its section number. Models delivered to the Authority that, in post-deployment evaluation, exhibit behaviour the panel considers worthy of the classification are not returned to the vendor and are not described in any subsequent communication. The vendor receives a payment notice. The procurement is closed. The matter is, in the institutional language, “concluded.”