Moore & Van Allen PLLC is pleased to announce that Kristina (“Kris”) B. Whittaker, former Deputy Comptroller for Special Supervision in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), has joined the firm’s Charlotte office as Counsel. Whittaker will practice on Moore and Van Allen’s growing Financial Regulatory Advice and Response team. *
“Kris’ valuable experience and longstanding esteem within the OCC will greatly benefit our clients and increase our practice capabilities,” said Charlotte Member Edward P. O’Keefe. “Kris brings more than three decades of legal and supervisory experience and can approach our clients’ toughest challenges with perspectives from all angles. We are excited to have Kris on board.”
Whittaker’s tenure with the OCC included periods of significant expansion in bank powers and corporate structures, as well as major banking crises. As Deputy Comptroller for Special Supervision, Whittaker oversaw the supervision of the OCC’s most seriously troubled community banks/thrifts. Her division developed and implemented rehabilitation, and when necessary, resolution of those banks. She was an active member of senior management as evidenced by her roles as Chairman of the Washington Supervision Review Committee and member of the National Risk Steering Committee. Prior to this position, Whittaker was the Assistant Director of the Bank Activities and Structure division in the Law Department. In that position, she managed staff and projects involving complex bank regulatory and corporate structure issues. These encompassed a wide range of emerging legal, policy and regulatory matters including, for example, internet banks and banking, federal preemption, new corporate structures, mergers and acquisitions and charters. In addition, Whittaker and her staff developed, in collaboration with supervision and other banking agencies, strategies and legal opinions to support and effectively supervise, rehabilitate and resolve troubled national banks. From 1989 to 1993, Whittaker was the OCC’s Assistant Chief Counsel reviewing complex legal opinions, OCC policies and procedures, enforcement documents and corporate approvals.
Whittaker earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Baltimore School of Law and her B.S. from the University of Maryland.
*Whittaker is currently solely licensed in Maryland, not North Carolina, and is therefore limited to handling federal law matters only.
Ed O’Keefe, former Global General Counsel of Bank of America Corporation, advises and represents financial institutions. Having also headed or served as a senior executive with Bank of America’s compliance, technology, human resources and operations functions, O’Keefe’s broad experience includes all aspects of investigations litigation, regulatory compliance, governance, cybersecurity, risk management and compensation. O’Keefe’s practice includes advising on all aspects of regulatory compliance, including BSA/AML, anti-bribery/anti-corruption, resolution planning, stress testing and responding to regulatory inquiries. He also advises General Counsel and their leaders on law department management, including engagement with regulators and control functions. A former Deputy General Counsel for Deutsche Bank AG and Chair of The Clearing House Association, O’Keefe has represented financial institutions before the U.S. Congress and the U.K. financial regulatory authorities, global agencies and courts, as well as the Federal Reserve, the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. View Mr. O’Keefe’s full bio.
