OCC chief Brian Brooks to step down, reports say

The head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) within the U.S. Treasury, Brian Brooks, will leave the post by the end of the week, according to Politico reporter Victoria Guida.

NEWS: Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks is expected to leave the agency by the end of the week, according to people familiar with the matter. (OCC spox would not confirm.)https://t.co/gauWeiEZb2

— Victoria Guida (@vtg2) January 12, 2021

Earlier, Brooks held a leadership post at Coinbase. He was appointed to head the OCC by President Trump in the summer of 2020.

Under his watch, the regulator allowed banks to hold stablecoin collateral and keys to clients’ cryptocurrency wallets. In January 2021 the OCC gave financial institutions the ability to use public blockchains and stablecoins for settlement.

In November 2020 six members of the U.S. Congress criticised the OCC’s work under Brooks. In their view, the regulator paid too much attention to cryptocurrencies.

The financier Gary Gensler has been named a likely candidate for the chairmanship of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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