About the Author
Thomas P. Vartanian is a financial services and technology expert. He has been described as “one of the best financial services lawyers in America.” As a federal financial regulator, he authorized the closure or merger of more financial institutions than anyone ever has since the Great Depression. As a private practitioner, he has worked with financial companies around the globe to structure novel acquisitions, develop new products and delivery systems, and integrate developing technologies. Over his career he represented parties in 30 of the 50 largest financial institution collapses in American history.
Mr. Vartanian served in the Reagan Administration as General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the FSLIC, where he handled the S&L crisis. Prior to that, he was Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. When he left government, he chaired the financial institutions practices at two international law firms, Fried Frank LLP and Dechert LLP. He chaired the American Bar Association’s Cyberspace Law Committee between 1998 and 2002 where he convened an international task force of lawyers from twenty countries to reach a consensus on applying laws in cyberspace.
Mr. Vartanian has advised four Presidential Administrations on financial services issues and drafted parts of financial legislation enacted into law over the last six decades. Today, Vartanian is a thought leader, serving as the Executive Director of the Financial Technology & Cybersecurity Center (www.fintsc.org). Prior to that, he was a Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Program on Financial Regulation & Technology at George Mason University’s Scalia Law School.
He is a frequent lecturer and media commentator on the financial services industry, having appeared on Bloomberg TV, Fox News, CNN, Fox Business, BBC Radio, NPR and numerous other radio shows. He has taught banking, financial technology, and financial crises law at Scalia Law School, Georgetown Law School, George Washington Law School, Boston University School of Law, and guest lectured at Harvard Law School and UC Berkley.
In 2008, Mr. Vartanian was named “Washingtonian of the Year” based on his use of music and sports to raise money for charities in the D.C. metropolitan area. As a musician, he appeared in the first production in the United States in 1970 of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.