Brian Quintenz, former commodities regulator and friend to the crypto industry, weighed in today on the confirmation process to elect a new Comptroller of the Currency. Taking the stand today in a U.S. Senate hearing is Saule Omarova, a controversial pick for the seat due to her professed support for public banking and skepticism of some corners of private finance.
Over her brief academic career, Omarova published papers making the case for strengthening the Federal Reserve’s role in consumer banking, limiting the ability for private banks to feed into speculative frenzies (a la the 2008 derivatives crisis) and reining in the excesses of the fintech and crypto sectors