The head of the United States Office of Currency Controlling (OCC), Brian P. Brooks, officially announced that he is leaving office on January 14, 2021.
In a statement dated Jan. 13, the organization said that chief operating officer Blake Paulson would become the currency’s interim controller, replacing Brooks, who served for eight months.
Brian P. Brooks will step down, Blake Paulson will become the Currency Controller on January 14, 2021 https://t.co/bGpnNapT1F
– OCC (@USOCC) January 13, 2021
Former chief Brooks, former head of Coinbase, has been a breath of fresh air with his forward-looking approach. On January 12, he suggested that DeFi could eradicate prejudice and fraud in the traditional banking system and that regulations need to be reconfigured for an era of algorithms.
After several years of regulatory uncertainty, the agency, which falls within the scope of the U.S. Treasury, recently took steps to allow banks to use blockchain nodes and independent stablecoins.
The announcement acknowledged these achievements, adding that Brooks helped ensure that “the federal banking system could evolve to meet the changing demands of consumers and markets, enlightening banking and savings authorities to certain activities related to crypto assets. “.
Outgoing President Donald Trump formally appointed Brooks to a five-year term in November, but resistance came from Democrats, who believed President-elect Joe Biden should oversee the selection.
Brooks, a former Coinbase executive, said he was leaving OCC in competent hands. His replacement, Paulson, is a career bank examiner and has served as the agency’s Chief Operating Officer since June 2020. Prior to his role at the agency, Paulson was responsible for overseeing some 1,100 national banks and federal savings associations, so , he is essentially a traditional veteran banker.
It is unclear how Paulson will address crypto assets, but Democratic members of the US Congress have already criticized Brooks for placing too much emphasis on moves towards digital banking and not enough focus on Covid-19 relief.
The OCC supervises some 1,200 national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches and foreign bank branches, which, among them, conduct approximately 70% of all banking business in the United States