Frank Bisignano Had To Google Social Security When He First Got A Call For The Job: 'What The Heck's The Commissioner…'

Newly installed Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano told more than 500 field-office managers this week that he was not “looking for a job” and had to "Google” Social Security before accepting the post offered to him by the Trump administration.

What Happened: According to an audio recording obtained by ABC News, "I'm one of the great Googlers on the East Coast," Bisignano joked, adding that his first reaction was, “What the heck's the commissioner of Social Security?"

Bisignano, 64, spent three decades at Citi, JPMorgan and Fiserv, where he earned a reputation for aggressive cost-cutting and big mergers, including Fiserv's $22 billion takeover of First Data. He arrives at Social Security with no prior government experience, but White House spokesperson Liz Huston says his fintech track record will help "modernize the agency and improve its efficiency."

His outsider status comes at a fraught moment. Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is eyeing all federal benefit programs for savings, fueling workforce anxiety after years of hiring freezes and office closures, reports the Associated Press. On Capitol Hill, a House bill passed Thursday would cut payroll-tax revenues by boosting child-tax credits, a change analysts warn could widen Social Security's cash-flow gap.

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Bisignano told staff the program is "not going away" and said President Trump asked him to repeat that assurance "every day." Still, ethics filings show he secured a tax deferral on $484 million in Fiserv stock as part of his federal-service transition, raising questions about conflicts of interest while the agency explores private-sector cloud deals.

Why It Matters: In recent Senate testimony, Bisignano vowed not to pursue privatization and instead flagged three goals: shrinking call-center wait times, deploying AI to detect fraud and reopening shuttered field offices. Union leaders counter that any technology upgrade must be coupled with more front-line hiring to handle 70 million beneficiaries.

For now, the "Great Googler-in-Chief," as Bisignano joked he might be labeled, has launched a nationwide listening tour and ordered a 90-day review of modernization projects shelved under DOGE. Whether Wall Street speed can mesh with an 89-year-old program's bureaucracy may decide if Silicon-style disruption becomes Social Security's lifeline — or its latest headache.

Photo Courtesy: Jason Raff on Shutterstock.com

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