2019 Spring Meeting
On Thursday, April 11, 2019, the New York League of Independent Bankers (NYLIB) held its Spring Meeting, featuring two distinguished speakers.
Event Recap
The evening began as the new president of NYLIB, Ms. Casey Christopher, introduced herself. Ms. Christopher provided her vision for NYLIB to grow both as a think tank for community bankers to share experiences and ideas, and as an advocacy force for local, independent financial institutions.
Following the introduction, NYLIB presented its first speaker of the evening, Mr. Diego Zuluaga, who serves as a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. Mr. Zuluaga spoke about his perspective of the impact of financial regulations on small versus large banks and echoed the concerns shared by many NYLIB members. He also provided statistics regarding the amount of regulation across various financial sectors over the years and highlighted the biggest regulatory event in recent history, the Dodd-Frank Act. Mr. Zuluaga concluded his speech with his view of the motivations for financial regulations, as well as the regulatory impact on financial institutions in 2018.
Subsequently, Mr. Douglas Bloom, the Head of Cybersecurity and North American Privacy Law at Morgan Stanley, spoke at length about emerging cybersecurity issues for banks and other financial institutions. Mr. Bloom shared his knowledge of recent trends in cybersecurity and brought his myriad of experience as a former cybersecurity and privacy consultant and federal prosecutor to answer questions from the audience. He also addressed the regulatory burdens the rise in cybersecurity attacks have created on financial institutions.
Overall, the Spring Meeting kicked off a promising year for NYLIB, with members and attendees networking and actively participating in discussions with the new president of the organization and the two speakers of the evening. NYLIB would like to offer special thanks to Mr. Zuluaga and Mr. Bloom for appearing as guests and providing their insights on issues faced by the banking community.
Speakers
Event speakers include Casey Christopher, as newly appointed president of NYLIB, Diego Zuluaga, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, and Douglas Bloom, the Head of Cybersecurity and North American Privacy Law at Morgan Stanley.
Casey Christopher
Ms. Christopher is a seasoned banker with over 10 years of experience in the financial sector. She is a Vice President and Business Development Officer at CenterState Bank and manages a portfolio of over 200 bank customers across multiple states, specializing in SWIFT, domestic and international online clearing, asset-liability management services, and syndicated national credits and derivatives. She is an active member of the Florida Bankers Association, New Jersey Bankers Association, Financial Women’s Association of NY, Financial Managers Society of NY/NJ, and the Junior League of Bergen County.
Diego Zuluaga
Mr. Zuluaga specializes in financial technology and consumer credit. Prior to joining the Cato Institute, he was the Head of Financial Services and Tech Policy at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London. He was also a former lecturer in economics at the University of Buckingham. Mr. Zuluaga has authored numerous publications on topics involving finance and regulation. His work has been featured in the Times, Newsweek, and Daily Telegraph.
Douglas Bloom
Mr. Bloom is responsible for Morgan Stanley’s cybersecurity and North American privacy legal matters. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham University, where he teaches a course on computer crimes. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Bloom was a director in PwC's Cybersecurity & Privacy, Financial Crimes and Forensics practices. Mr. Bloom also served as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he investigated and prosecuted national security cyber offenses.
