WASHINGTON—President Biden is expected to nominate Michael Barr, a former Treasury Department official, to a top post overseeing national banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., according to people familiar with the decision.
Mr. Barr, who would serve as comptroller of the currency, was assistant treasury secretary for financial institutions during the Obama administration. In that role, he helped craft the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, a sweeping overhaul of financial regulation that followed the 2008-09 financial crisis.
The White House declined to comment, and the Treasury Department didn’t respond to a request for comment. Mr. Barr, who is currently dean of public policy at the University of Michigan, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
It was unclear when the White House would announce the nomination. Mr. Barr would succeed Brian Brooks, who stepped down last week after about eight months as the Trump administration’s acting comptroller.
Mr. Barr would join Mr. Biden’s prospective regulatory team alongside Rohit Chopra, the president’s likely pick to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Gary Gensler, the nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is an independent bureau of the Treasury Department, which would be headed by Mr. Biden’s nominee as secretary, Janet Yellen.
