A new head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency may be nominated soon, starting the process to replace Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu.
People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that President Joe Biden plans to nominate Cornell University law professor Saule Omarova as Comptroller. They say a formal announcement could come as early as this week, though a White House spokeswoman declined to comment to WSJ.
Omarova would be the first woman to serve as comptroller, replacing the current acting head. Hsu has recently voiced a degree of skepticism about the crypto space, undertaking a review of crypto-related actions and saying that he views stablecoins in the context of the so-called wildcat banking days.
For her part, Omarova has been somewhat critical of cryptocurrencies, previously claiming that digital tokens benefit and perpetuate an unstable financial system. She has been an outspoken critic against big banks and has previously said she wants to “end banking as we know it,” according to Bloomberg.
Hsu replaced the crypto-friendly former Coinbase legal counsel Brian Brooks. Brooks made a number of advancements for crypto, including approving the first banking charters for crypto firms and clarifying that chartered banks could custody stablecoins.
