WASHINGTON–The former acting chief of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency believes blockchain could be an ideal way to expand services to the underbanked.
Brian Brooks, who was chief counsel of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase before joining the OCC, said his view has less to do with his former employer and more to do with his own personal financial struggles in life.
Brooks told the New York Times he basically borrowed his way out of an ailing town, after growing up in Pueblo, Colo., a steel center that lost its purpose in the 1980s. After his father took his own life when Brooks was 14, and he and his mother had little, and in high school he waited tables and took out loans for school, for a car and eventually for a home, he told the Times.
“Now, he’s betting that blockchain can help the underbanked do the same more easily,” the Times reported.
‘Up the Ladder’
Brooks told the Times “unlocking credit availability allows people to move up the ladder,” Brooks said. He noted nearly 50 million Americans don’t have credit scores, but many are creditworthy, and said traditional rating systems aren’t equipped for nuanced assessments that might include things like rent, Netflix bills or income from gig work.
For many, the inability to borrow limits opportunities to achieve financial security, he added.
The Times noted that while at the OCC Brooks started Project Reach, a financial inclusion initiative, and his first move since resigning from the agency in January was to join the board of the fintech firm Spring Labs as an independent director. Among other things, the company is developing richer data environments for credit scoring using blockchain solutions to financial inclusion that are immune to politics is key, Brooks said.
Brooks told the Times credit allows people to bet on themselves regardless of which party is making policy, and the current system excludes many worthy borrowers.
“Let’s let more people climb ladders,” Brooks said.