An official website of the United States government. 
News Release 24-047
Inv. No(s). 332-601
Contact: Philip Stone, 202-205-1819
The United States remained the world’s largest services market and was the world’s leading exporter and importer of services in 2022, reports the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) in its new publication Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, 2024 Annual Report. The U.S. services sector also continues to represent the largest sector of the U.S. economy.
The USITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, compiles the report annually. Each year’s report presents a qualitative and quantitative overview of U.S. trade in services and highlights some of the services sectors and geographic markets that contribute substantially to recent services trade performance.
This year’s report focuses on trade in financial services, which includes a wide range of activities that are responsible for facilitating monetary transactions, lending to consumers and firms, mobilizing and managing savings, providing liquidity in debt and equity markets, advising and underwriting corporate finance transactions, and developing instruments that manage risk.
The report includes a special topic section on the impact of higher inflation and interest rates, as well as two thematic chapters that focus on the use of digital and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in financial services and discuss changing demand for financial services related to sustainability, weather events, and the expansion of capital markets in emerging economies. Each of the subsectors in financial services (banking, insurance, and securities) are addressed in the special topic section and the two thematic chapters.
Financial services firms continued to digitalize their operations while looking to implement new AI technologies.
- In banking, increasing digitalization has allowed banks to use advanced analytics in new ways throughout their operations. Middle- and back-office functions are using AI to improve fraud detection, risk management, and credit approvals.
- In insurance, firms are continuing to digitalize their operations, including to sort claims and applications, calculate risk scores, and verify and complete software applications. Insurers are also increasingly employing AI to aid pricing, claims processing, fraud detection, and underwriting.
- In securities, firms such as investment banks and hedge funds have digitalized their processes, including through algorithmic trading strategies driven by machine learning and AI, and have introduced market innovations such as tokenized assets using blockchain technologies.
Financial services firms are expanding the range of products and services they offer in response to heightened customer demand for sustainability and financial inclusion, as well as contributing to the growth of capital markets in emerging economies.
- In banking, banks have prioritized sustainability (as it relates to climate change, gender equality, and financial inclusion) in response to growing demand for sustainable investment products and the increasing number of international frameworks focused on these issues.
- In insurance, global property and casualty insurance companies have experienced changing demand conditions, including an increase in global insured losses, driven by such factors as increased population and development in coastal and other vulnerable areas, increased insurable values of physical assets, and the incidence and location of extreme weather events.
- In securities, securities markets in emerging economies, especially large ones like China and India, are seeing increased transaction volumes and a broader range of securities products because of increased incomes and demand for additional savings and investment opportunities.
The USITC hosted its 17th annual services roundtable, which was held on November 2, 2023. The discussion, summarized in the report, focused on infrastructure development and financing and services trade, and building services trade capacity.
Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, 2024 Annual Report (Investigation No. 332-601, USITC publication 5512, May 2024) is available on the USITC's website at http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub5512.pdf.