New top US banking regulator is pro-crypto. Brian Brooks has recently become the current acting Currency Controller, the top banking regulator for the Trump administration. The 51-year-old has crypto expertise, having previously worked as general counsel for bitcoin exchange Coinbase.
Sharing his views on cryptocurrency, regulation and technology, Brooks said that “Blockchain has potential to connect up, in a decentralised network, all kinds of data … It has the ability to create large, friction-free, decentralised networks of people”. He believes that “blockchain is the solution to our problems”.
“I’m very bullish on technology … Things like AI, things like blockchain have a better ability to leverage the wisdom of crowds,” he added.
Additionally, Brooks is “looking for decentralised networks in general”. He cited bitcoin, ether and XRP in particular “to solve many of the problems hindering more than one-thousand financial institutions under his purview”. The new acting comptroller also revealed that he is focusing on rewriting existing regulation on “bank digital activities”.
Speaking on the digital dollar, Brooks is skeptical about the federal government issuing one. He opined “I’m not in favour of a government-created token … I just don’t think that’s the role of government, quite honestly. But I think that the Fed and the SEC need to be putting up frameworks of what that digital currency needs to be”.
As acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brooks is the administrator of the federal banking system and chief officer of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
[image: Flickr]
