President Biden is reportedly planning to nominate a law professor who has said she wants to “end banking as we know it” to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
Sources told Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal that Biden is planning to nominate Cornell Law School professor Saule Omarova to run the OCC, which oversees and regulates the U.S. banking system.
Omarova specializes in banking law, international finance and corporate finance. She has received degrees from Moscow State University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Northwestern University School of Law.
The New York Times reported last month that the Biden administration was vetting Omarova to lead the OCC after two previous potential nominees were abandoned due to infighting within the Democratic Party.
Omarova, who was born in Kazakhstan, previously served as a special adviser on regulatory policy under former President George W. Bush. In her writings, she has been critical of large banks entering the world of cryptocurrencies, which she argued would allow large firms to conduct trading activity out of sight from federal regulators.
As the OCC oversees major banking institutions such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America, Omarova’s stance on expanding governance over large banks may signal a potentially a different relationship between banks and the federal government.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.