_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. He is the founder and CEO of Ludwig Advisors.

In 2001, Mr. Ludwig founded Promontory Financial Group, the industry leader in regulatory compliance and risk management consulting. His team of former regulators and business leaders became known for their ability to resolve the most pressing issues confronting financial services companies. He remained CEO through 2020 and was an IBM executive after the firm was acquired in 2016. Mr. Ludwig also founded and was formerly CEO and chairman of Promontory Interfinancial Network (now IntraFi Network), an early fintech company with a network of approximately 3,000 bank members.

He is a managing partner of Canapi Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on investments in early to growth-stage fintech companies.

Mr. Ludwig founded the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), which is 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. His book, The Vanishing American Dream, was published in September 2020.  

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. Earlier in his career, he was a partner at Covington & Burling, specializing in banking law.

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 multi-agency 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.