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The Honorable Eugene A. Ludwig, the 27th comptroller of the currency, is a business and civic leader and expert on banking, regulation, risk management and fiscal policy. Mr. Ludwig is managing partner of Canapi Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on investments in early to growth-stage fintech companies, and CEO of Ludwig Advisors, which counsels financial firms on critical matters. He is the founder and former CEO and chairman of Promontory
Financial Group, where he was an IBM executive after the firm was acquired in 2016. He is also the founder and former CEO and chairman of Promontory Interfinancial Network (now IntraFi Network), an early fintech company with approximately 3,000 bank members. Under his leadership, the Promontory family of companies became synonymous with excellence in compliance, risk management and financial services innovation.
In 2019, Mr. Ludwig founded the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, or LISEP, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the economic well-being of middle- and lower-
income Americans. Its research includes new economic indicators for unemployment, earnings and cost of living. LISEP's statistics aim to provide policymakers and the public a
more transparent view into the economic situation of all Americans as compared with traditional metrics. He co-founded the Carol and Gene Ludwig Family Foundation, which provides grants to organizations that accelerate medical and scientific discovery in neurodegenerative diseases and enable access to educational and economic opportunity for young people.
Mr. Ludwig was previously vice chairman and senior control officer of Bankers Trust New York Corp., then the fifth largest U.S. banking organization. He was instrumental in steering the firm through its landmark merger with Deutsche Bank.
As comptroller from 1993 to 1998, Mr. Ludwig served as the Clinton administration's chief banking regulator and point person on the policy response to the credit crunch of the early
1990s. He fashioned an 11-point plan that was instrumental in ending the crunch and helping banks begin to lend again and fulfill their role of supporting the economy. He modernized and
revised the bank regulatory framework, leading a multiagency effort to overhaul the Community Reinvestment Act. Under his purview, lending to low- and moderate-income Americans increased tenfold, as did national bank investments in community development corporations. He brought the first fair-lending case in the nation and over the course of his
leadership, 27 cases in all, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in fines against violators. While he was comptroller, Mr. Ludwig served as chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, a member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, a director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and chairman of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation.
Mr. Ludwig was previously a partner at Covington & Burling, specializing in banking law. He has been a guest lecturer at multiple colleges and universities, including Yale and Harvard's
law and business schools and Georgetown's International Law Institute.
Given his unique perspective as a regulator, lawyer, banker, business leader and trusted advisor to leading financial institutions, he is a sought-after thought leader. His pieces have been published in The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street
Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, Democracy Journal, American Banker, Time, Newsweek, Bloomberg and on CNBC.com. His book, "The Vanishing American Dream," was published in September 2020.
Gene was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in York, Pennsylvania. He graduated magna cum laude from Haverford College and received a scholarship to Oxford University,
where he earned a Master of Arts degree as a Keasbey Fellow. He earned a J.D. from Yale University, where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal and chairman of Yale Legislative Services.
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It has never been more important for banks, particularly those over $10 billion of assets, to establish ironclad data quality, governance and control standards. The failure to do so will have cascading negative consequences.
August 19 -
The basics of good banking — a strong balance sheet, customer service and solid risk analysis — will always be important. But in the future, technological competence will be the difference between the sector's winners and losers.
July 15 -
Economic downturns are inevitable, but regulatory overreaction to them shouldn't be. We need to rethink the way banks are allowed to recover from economic shocks.
June 17 -
Gaps in traditional means of assessing creditworthiness are being filled by new kinds of information, such as cash flow data. The result will be good for both banks and borrowers.
May 20 -
The Supreme Court should preserve the preemption of state banking laws by federal laws, a key element of the dual banking system that has served the country well for generations.
March 13 -
After a 2023 that witnessed several significant bank failures, here's how bank regulators should be thinking about the danger of bank runs, and structuring their supervision, going forward.
January 26 -
A former comptroller of the currency assesses last year's turmoil in the industry and charts a path forward including advancements in regulation.
January 25 -
Nominating and confirming acting Comptroller Michael Hsu would solve a serious problem in a good way.
May 16 -
A former comptroller of the currency worries that, in the current frenzy to right crypto's wrongs, Washington will go too far and inadvertently undercut the U.S. banking system.
April 11 -
An alternative metric might have led the Federal Reserve to take earlier action against rising prices.
August 12