Professor Saule Omarova is the Sharp, Uncompromising Leader the OCC Needs to Curb Dangerous Concentrations of Power in the Financial System

U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs holds hearing on Dr. Saule T. Omarova to be Comptroller of the Currency. November, 18, 2021. www.banking.senate.gov

Open Markets urges the Senate to support Omarova’s nomination in light of hearing

WASHINGTON— The Senate Banking Committee held a nomination hearing Thursday for Professor Saule Omarova to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Professor Omarova is a leading expert in banking law, a former public servant in the George W. Bush administration, and a former attorney in private practice at Davis, Polk, & Wardwell. Dr. Omarova has spent more than a decade documenting the dangers of concentrations of power in the financial system and commodity markets.

In response, Barry Lynn, executive director at Open Markets Institute, issued the following statement:

“Professor Omarova’s exacting and thoughtful scholarship demonstrates that she is a strong champion of community banks, and an unrivaled expert on prudential financial regulation.

“None of the bad faith, despicable attacks on Professor Omarova can overshadow her brilliant and comprehensive work. While many in Washington applaud as members of the digital asset marketplace laud their ability to ‘revolutionize’ finance or disrupt the banking system, Professor Omarova’s law review article examining digital assets has been distorted into scaremongering over out-of-context quotes about ending banking as we know it.

“Professor Omarova is deeply aware of the dangers of concentrations of power in the financial system. For example, she painstakingly documented the ways that Too Big To Fail banks distorted and manipulated physical commodity markets for their own profits, driving up prices for beer makers and consumers alike. This research helped lead to an investigation of these distortions by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

“Professor Omarova is an unrivaled mind and uniquely positioned with her expertise in finance, digital assets, and banking law to lead the Comptroller of the Currency and ensure that banking advances the needs of small business, community banks, and consumers across the United States. We urge the Senate to support her nomination.”

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Professor Omarova has also long served on the Open Markets advisory board.