Biden intends to nominate Omarova as the head of the OCC, and the currency circle and Wall Street are trembling.

The confirmation of Omarova's nomination is expected to be an "uphill battle".

U.S. President Biden plans to nominate law professor Saule Omarova as head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). According to three people familiar with the matter who declined to be named before the official White House announcement, the nomination will be released as soon as this week. Both Omarova herself and the White House declined to comment on the matter.

Omarova, who teaches at Cornell Law School, has criticized cryptocurrencies and advocated a greater role for the government in the banking sector, and has threatened to reinvent the U.S. banking sector.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency oversees the largest banks in the United States, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup. Omarova's nomination would be a warning to Wall Street as she is expected to pursue stricter regulations and rules. If Omarova sticks to some of her most radical positions, such as shifting personal banking from private institutions to the Federal Reserve, people may question whether Biden supports her agenda.

Omarova noted that the rapid rise of cryptocurrencies "primarily benefits our existing dysfunctional financial system." She pointed out that digital tokens have the risk of destabilizing the economy and are easily abused by private companies, threatening public safety.

But the confirmation of Omarova's nomination is expected to be an "uphill battle" because Democrats have an overwhelming majority in the Senate and banks are important bipartisan donors who may actively lobby against her candidacy.

The Biden administration has been struggling to find a candidate for the administrator of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Earlier this year, the White House was forced to abandon previous candidates, including a former Treasury official who was opposed by Progressive Democrats. The position has been managed by former Fed official Michael Hsu since May.

If the nomination is approved by the Senate, Omarova, a native of Kazakhstan, will become the first female leader of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the only woman in history who has served as acting auditor general of the agency.

Omarova has said in an academic paper that she supports converting consumer deposit accounts into Fed consumer accounts, which she calls part of a "blueprint to completely reshape the basic architecture and dynamics of modern finance."

Wall Street banks have always been strongly opposed to the digital dollar. These big banks, backed by huge deposits, provide ample funding for much of their core business and continue to profit from the difference between the interest they pay to account holders and the interest they charge on loans.

Omarova's position is in direct opposition to that of U.S. banks. She tweeted a distrust of big banks:

"Does the world need JPMorgan to get bigger and stronger?"

Liberal groups are likely to be happy about Omarova's nomination. Earlier this year, when Omarova was a potential candidate, the Center for Racial and Economic Action praised:

"Omarova will lead us in correcting the misdeeds of past administrations that have been in close contact with Wall Street executives and ignored the widening racial and economic gap in our country."