Brian Brooks
Former Acting Comptroller
Brian Brooks is a partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, a global law firm. Brian is recognized around the world as one of the most visionary global leaders in financial services and financial technology. In January 2021, Crunchbase ranked Brian tenth on its list of global influencers.
Brian is best known for his service as acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, FDIC board member, and voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. In that capacity, he led government policy efforts on bank-fintech partnerships, brokered deposit arrangements, bank liquidity rules, fiduciary powers, national bank preemption, and other important issues. He also signed the Fair Access Rule, designed to ensure open access to the banking system for all legal businesses.
Brian has deep experience in both banking and in the venture-backed financial innovation ecosystem. He has been a senior advisor to both Valor Capital Group and Portage Ventures, and advised or served on the boards of such fintechs as Avant, Credix, Hashdex, Spring Labs, Curve, EarnUp, and others.
Earlier in his career, Brian served as chief legal officer of Coinbase; general counsel (and later board member) of Fannie Mae; and vice chairman of OneWest Bank, N.A. His op-ed columns on financial services appear regularly in the Wall Street Journal, and he is a frequent financial services commentator on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business.
Brian is also an accomplished pianist, a board member of LA Opera, and a former board member of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. He is an honors graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School.