Saule Omarova, Biden’s Nominee to Regulate Big Banks, Withdraws Bid to Head OCC

After two months of hand-wringing and criticism from the financial industry and political opponents who feared President Biden’s nominee to oversee the nation’s top banks was too harsh, Saule Omarova’s bid to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) was withdrawn Tuesday (Dec. 7).

In a statement to the media, Biden acknowledged and accepted the withdrawal request and expressed his disappointment that an experienced public servant and respected academic was being kept from fulfilling a role for which she was well qualified.

“I nominated Saule because of her deep expertise in financial regulation and her long-standing, respected career in the private sector, the public sector, and as a leading academic in the field,” Biden said, before recounting her unique life story as a young Khazhak immigrant who had gone on to hold roles in the Treasury Department under President George W. Bush.

More recently, Omarova served as a business law professor at Cornell University, where she headed up the program on Law and Regulation of Financial Institutions and Markets. It was there that many of her writings and research emerged and began to draw fire from industry leaders.

After tapping Omarova in late September for the job of overseeing the institutions that make up the national banking system as well as other secondary players within the industry, such as FinTechs, it did not take long for partisan battle lines to emerge. Opponents quickly labeled the 55-year-old as an outspoken critic of traditional banking, a hawk on cryptocurrencies, and sought to see a larger more active regulatory role watching over the country’s financial services sector.

Read more: Biden to Name CBDC Advocate Saule Omarova to Lead OCC

To be sure, some of the opposition to this nomination came from within Biden’s own party, where a group of moderate Democrats had also expressed concerns about Omarova both privately and publicly at a hearing last month. Among their concerns was the fact that some of Omarova’s prior writings could be seen extreme or dangerous and therefore inhibit her ability to objectively do the job.

On the flip side, Biden and other backers saw in Omarova a leader who would be a strong advocate for consumers who would also have brought tremendous expertise and insight to a job that requires some who can defend the safety and soundness of the nation’s financial system, and the ability to stand up to big banks.

“The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a critical agency, supervising and regulating about 1,200 national banks in the federal banking system,” Biden concluded. “I will continue to work to find a nominee for this position, and plan to make an announcement at a future date.”

Even before Omarova’s withdrawal was confirmed and her candidacy appeared in jeopardy, the names of alternative nominees have been floated in the media. Among them, but no less polarizing, is former CFPB director Richard Cordray, who led the nation’s top consumer watchdog agency for five years and is a well-known critic of big banks and an ally of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D- Mass).

In her withdrawal request, Omarova did not address critics or attempt to correct any of the assertions opponents had levied, but instead offered her respect for the position and the process and the numerical barrier that had doomed her nomination from the start.

“I deeply value President Biden’s trust in my abilities and remain firmly committed to the Administration’s vision of a prosperous, inclusive, and just future for our country,” her letter stated, “[but] at this point in the process, however, it is no longer tenable for me to continue as a Presidential nominee.”