Fireworks over OCC nominee distract from bigger policy issue
By Karen Petrou
Tomorrow, the Senate Banking Committee will hold Saule Omarova’s confirmation hearing for comptroller of the currency. Many expect this to be a knock-down, drag-out between the progressive bank-reform agenda and the banking industry’s antipathy thereto. This it surely will be, but to watch only these fireworks is to miss the longer-burning fire below: renewed questions about whether banks are public utilities or private companies with unique privileges fully reimbursed by virtue of unduly burdensome regulation. It is by this choice — not Ms. Omarova’s most-uncertain confirmation — that the future of U.S. finance will be decided.
https://www.americanbanker.com/opinion/fireworks-over-occ-nominee-distract-from-bigger-policy-issue
