The Independent Community Bankers of America has taken the rare move of publicly opposing President Joe Biden’s nominee for comptroller of the currency ahead of her much-anticipated hearing.
The ICBA, which represents thousands of community banks across the country, announced its disapproval of Cornell Law professor Saule Omarova on Wednesday, a day before she is set to testify before the Senate Banking Committee.
“Our opposition is based on a careful review of Professor Omarova’s record of published scholarship and public statements on the topic of American banking policy. Her positions are alarming to community banks,” the group said in a letter to committee leadership.
Some of Omarova’s academic musings have come under intense scrutiny from Republicans and business groups, including a paper in which she called for the end of banking “as we know it.”
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In one of her papers, “The People’s Ledger: How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy,” she outlined a plan for “radically reshaping the basic architecture and dynamics of modern finance.”
Omarova has also discussed the formation of a new government bureaucracy called the National Investment Authority, which would work directly in financial markets to allocate “both public and private capital” to fight inequality, climate change, and societal ills.
“The Comptroller should have a fundamental understanding of the role that community banks play in supporting local economic growth. Professor Omarova has advocated the displacement of community banks with government credit allocation,” the ICBA letter reads.
The opposition is significant given the influential nature of the group and that in Omarova’s statements prepared for the hearing, released on Wednesday, she leans heavily into the importance of the community banking system. Omarova will say that if confirmed, she will ensure a “fair and competitive market” in which community banks can thrive.
“A critical part of that task is preserving and fostering the relationship banking that drives economic growth and creates local jobs and prosperity,” her prepared remarks read. “I am thinking here of my own community bank in Ithaca, New York — Tompkins Trust — where they know every one of their customers and care about our community’s needs. That is what I see as the true heart of American banking.”
Tompkins Trust, the community bank Omarova mentions, is a member of the Independent Bankers Association of New York State, one of the signatories of the ICBA letter opposing her nomination.
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A senior Senate GOP aide said during a Wednesday evening call with reporters that Republican members will question Omarova about her past academic work, including her idea of a National Investment Authority.
Omarova has said that she thinks her critics’ opposition stems from her Kazakh heritage and her gender. She grew up in the Soviet Union and attended Moscow State University. While Democrats have accused Republicans of red-baiting, they assert that their opposition comes from her past academic writing and policy prescriptions.
