On Oct. 6, US Treasury Secretary and Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent announced that Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) Frank Bisignano will be the CEO of the tax agency.
In this newly created role, Bisignano will report directly to Bessent. According to the US Treasury release, Bisignano will be managing the IRS and overseeing all its day-to-day operations while also continuing in his role as Social Security Administration Commissioner.
“Frank is a businessman with an exceptional track record of driving growth and efficiency in the private and now public sector,” Bessent stated.
The IRS and SSA are two of the most public-facing and broadly impactful federal agencies. They are also sharing a lot of the same technological and customer service goals. This makes Bisignano a natural choice for this role.
“Under his leadership at the SSA, he has already made important and substantial progress, and we are pleased that he will bring this expertise to the IRS as we sharpen our focus on collections, privacy, and customer service in order to deliver better outcomes for hardworking Americans,” Bessent noted.
CNN characterized the new arrangement as "unusual" with Bessent remaining as acting commissioner of the IRS, which has had many changes in chiefs just in the past year. However, the arrangement has its perks since Bisignano would not have to go through what is an often lengthy Senate confirmation, letting him start work right away, according to CNN.
CNN also said that the appointment comes as the tax agency lost a considerable number of its workforce under Trump’s efforts to cut down the federal government. The IRS also has a big task ahead: to put in place major tax changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act before the tax filing season begins in January. This entails writing updated regulations while making its forms and tech up-to-date while training its customer service employees.
Bisignano, the 18th Senate-confirmed SSA Commissioner, has over four decades of experience guiding some of the world’s biggest financial institutions and technology firms through both transformation and growth.
Before leading the SSA, Bisignano was chairman and CEO of Fiserv, which is the largest financial services and payment technology company in the world.
In 2019, Bisignano led the merger of Fiserv and First Data while he was serving as CEO of the latter company. While at JPMorgan Chase in the 2000’s, Bisignano was the co-COO. He also served as the CEO of its Mortgage Banking unit. He also held different roles at Citigroup such as Chief Administrative Officer and CEO of the firm’s Global Transaction Services unit.