The White House announced this past Thursday that President Biden has nominated Saule Omarova to serve as Comptroller of the Currency.

Ms. Omarova is currently a law professor at Cornell University, where she serves as the Director of the Program on the Law and Regulation of Financial Institutions and Markets of Cornell’s Jack Clarke Institute for the Study and Practice of Business Law.  The White House’s press release describes her as “one of the country’s leading academic experts on issues related to regulation of systemic risk and structural trends in financial markets.”  Before joining academia, Ms. Omarova was in private practice with a New York law firm.

Senate Republicans and the banking industry have already expressed concern about Ms. Omarova’s previously-expressed support for substantial restructuring of the financial system, including the complete migration of customer demand deposit accounts to the Federal Reserve and her skepticism of big bank growth and digital asset technology.