Brian Brooks

Brian Brooks is one of the most visionary global leaders in fintech and cryptocurrency. Cointelegraph ranked him 13th on its list of the top 100 people in blockchain, and Qredo placed him on the list of America’s top 20 crypto regulatory voices. In January 2021, Crunchbase ranked Brian tenth on its list of global influencers. Brian recently served as CEO of Binance.US, one of the ten largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. From May 2020 to January 2021, Brian served as Acting Comptroller of the Currency, heading the U.S. government agency that charters and supervises the federal banking system. He also served as a member of the FDIC board of directors and as a voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Often referred to as the “first fintech Comptroller” and “CryptoComptroller,” Brian is noted for historic achievements on bank charters, granting the first fintech charter (to Varo Bank) and the first crypto charter (to Anchorage Digital Bank), as well as for his work promoting bank-fintech partnerships through the “valid when made” rule and the “true lender rule.” He also signed the Fair Access Rule, designed to ensure open access to the banking system for all legal businesses regardless of political popularity. Earlier in his career, Brian served as chief legal officer of Coinbase; general counsel of Fannie Mae; vice chairman of OneWest Bank, N.A.; and managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Brian currently serves on the boards of directors of Interfirst Mortgage, Spring Labs, Valor Latitute Acquisition Corp., and EJF Acquisition Corp., and he is a previous board member of Fortune 20 mortgage giant Fannie Mae and fintech unicorn Avant, Inc. He has been an advisor to such fintech innovators as EarnUp, LoanSnap, TextIQ, HyperDraft, and others. Brian is also an accomplished pianist and a former board member of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Pasadena Conservatory of Music.