On February 12th, the White House announced numerous nominations to be sent to the Senate. The large list of nominations included three nominations for financial regulators. President Trump is nominating, Jonathan Gould to be Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Quintenz to be Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), and, as mentioned elsewhere in this week’s Cabinet News & Views Newsletter, Jonathan McKernan to be the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Mr. Gould previously served as Chief Counsel at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) during the first Trump administration. He is currently a Partner at a global law firm. In his previous time with the OCC, Mr. Gould took a leadership position in many fintech and crypto initiatives. Rodney Hood, a former Chair of the National Credit Union Administration, is the current Acting Comptroller of the Currency.
Mr. Quintenz is currently the head of policy at a crypto venture capital firm, a16z Crypto. He was previously a Commissioner at the CFTC in the first Trump administration. Mr. Quintenz’s crypto bona fides suggest that the CFTC may be the “winner” in the turf battle between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC. Commissioner Caroline Pham is the current Acting Chair of the CFTC.