CFTC Commissioner Pham on Policing the Largest Markets in the World

Caroline D. Pham was sworn in as a CFTC Commissioner on April 14, 2022, after being nominated by President Biden and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Commissioner Pham is an internationally recognized leader in financial services compliance and regulatory strategy and policy, with deep expertise in derivatives and capital markets and emerging issues such as digital innovation. Her substantial experience spans key international issues such as prudential regulation and systemic risk, financial markets including currencies and commodities, fintech and digital assets, ESG, and the impact of major disruptions like the savings and loan crisis, the 2008 great financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioner Pham is the sponsor of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee.

Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Pham advised boards of directors, executive and senior management, policymakers and regulators, and industry leaders on changes to the regulatory landscape and implications and risks of emerging issues, trends, and economic and market developments to the global financial system, markets, and banking. Her engagement includes international standard setters such as the Financial Stability Board (FSB), International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), and Bank for International Settlements (BIS), as well as central banks, government ministries, regulators, and other stakeholders across North America, Latin America, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific regions.

Commissioner Pham was previously a managing director at a large global financial institution where she served on firm-wide governance forums and held various senior roles in the chief administrative office, legal, compliance, and the institutional clients group, including as head of capital markets regulatory strategy and engagement; deputy head of global regulatory affairs; global head of swap dealer and Volcker compliance; and most recently, head of market structure for strategic initiatives, working closely with innovation, strategic investment, and business and product development teams on digital assets and other opportunities. She has built global programs and teams and led initiatives for implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act and other global regulatory reforms, including the design of compliance risk management, governance, and oversight frameworks and policies and procedures across all institutional and retail businesses. She also had oversight of U.S. regulatory change management for global markets, including rates and currencies, credit, securitized markets, commodities, municipal securities, equities, and financial market infrastructures.

Commissioner Pham’s past experience in the public and private sectors includes serving as Special Counsel and Policy Advisor to former CFTC Commissioner Scott O’Malia; and in enforcement at the CFTC, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and for the former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims while in law school.

Commissioner Pham is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She was also a Visiting Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Law, Economics, and Finance, and has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Business and Finance Law Program. Her former leadership roles with the American Bar Association (ABA) include member of the Council of the Business Law Section and the Executive Committee of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Board; Vice Chair of the Banking Law Committee; and Co-Chair of the Securities, Capital Markets, and Derivatives Subcommittee. She is a former Co-Chair of the Business Law Fellows Committee, a program to develop future diverse leaders, and also a former Fellow herself. In addition, Commissioner Pham has served in leadership roles on a multitude of industry forums, including on the Executive Committee of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

Commissioner Pham has a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, and was a recipient of the Manatt-Phelps Scholarship for excellence in banking law and the Vietnamese American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area Scholarship. Among other professional awards, Commissioner Pham received the National Conference of Vietnamese American Attorneys Cornerstone Award for lifetime achievement as the first Vietnamese-American woman appointed by the President to a Senate-confirmed executive branch position. She was born and raised in California’s Central Valley, the “food basket of the world.”