Brian Brooks, former acting head of the OCC, now partner at O’Melveny & Myers

Fintech One•On•One

The people who lead the national banking regulatory agencies typically come from long careers in banking and law with a traditional view of the banking world. But there has been one exception to this rule.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Brian Brooks, the former acting head of the OCC and a current partner at O'Melveny & Myers. Now, don't get me wrong, Brian has had a long career in banking and law but he has also spent time outside of traditional finance, thinking deeply about financial innovation.

He came to the OCC from Coinbase and he has been an advisor or board member to several other companies in crypto and fintech. So, his perspective on the banking industry, as you will hear in this interview, is very different from your typical banking regulator.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How the financial crisis shaped his career.
• The three dimensions of finance he is trying to knit together.
• How he came to join the OCC from Coinbase.
• How Brian was able to gain the trust of the big bank CEOs.
• The most important idea that he had while leading the OCC.
• How he looks back at his 10 months as OCC head.
• How we could have easily avoided the FTX blowup.
• Why the regulators were reluctant to make these simple changes.
• The core ideological debate that Republicans and Democrats have over crypto.
• Why the failures of Silvergate and Signature were more about concentration risk than specifically crypto.
• What he says to people who want to ban crypto.
• How decentralized finance can get scale and not run afoul of US regulators.
• How US-dollar stablecoins could help mitigate the risk of de-dollarization.
• What regulatory changes need to happen to take advantage of new financial technology.

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes