Georgetown Law

Timothy Massad is currently a Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown Law School and a consultant on financial regulatory and fintech issues.

Mr. Massad served as Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 2014-2017. Under his leadership, the agency implemented the Dodd Frank reforms of the over-the-counter swaps market and harmonized many aspects of cross-border regulation, including reaching a landmark agreement with the European Union on clearinghouse oversight. The agency also declared virtual currencies to be commodities, introduced reforms to address automated trading and strengthened cybersecurity protections.

Previously, Mr. Massad served as the Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the principal U.S. governmental response to the 2008 financial crisis. During his tenure, Treasury recovered more on all the crisis investments than was disbursed. Mr. Massad was with the Treasury from 2009 to 2014 and also served as a counselor to the Treasury Secretary.

Prior to his government service, Mr. Massad was a partner in the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP. His practice included corporate finance, derivatives and advising boards of directors. He managed the firm’s Hong Kong office from 1998 to 2002 and represented governments and corporations on transactions throughout Asia. Mr. Massad was also one of a small group of lawyers who drafted the original ISDA standard agreements for swaps.

Mr. Massad’s recent writings and other work include the following:

Banking With Interest Podcast, November 30, 2021, on stablecoins and CBDCS available at
https://bankingwithinterest.libsyn.com/a-better-way-forward-for-cbdcs-stablecoinsLinks to an external site.
or
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-better-way-forward-for-cbdcs-stablecoins/id1506774121?i=1000543492741Links to an external site.

Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, November 17, 2021 on crypto-assets,
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings-calendar?ID=215B7EAF-1838-4CE3-A499-55B99EA864F9Links to an external site.

“Regulating Stablecoins Isn’t Just About Avoiding Systemic Risk,” The Brookings Institute, October 5, 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/research/regulating-stablecoins-isnt-just-about-avoiding-systemic-risk/Links to an external site.

“A Bitcoin ETF Would Be Good for Investors and Regulators,” Bloomberg, July 7, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-07-07/a-bitcoin-etf-would-be-good-for-investors-and-regulators?sref=hU7uPhn8Links to an external site.

“Can a Cryptocurrency Break the Buck?” Bloomberg, May 31, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-31/stablecoins-like-tether-should-face-regulators-scrutiny?sref=hU7uPhn8Links to an external site.

“Coinbase’s Small Fine Is a Big Warning to IPO Investors,” Bloomberg, April 8, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-08/coinbase-s-small-fine-is-a-big-warning-to-ipo-investors?sref=hU7uPhn8Links to an external site.

“Cryptocurrencies: Speculative Bubble or the Future of Money?” Presentation at Harvard University, April 1, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cJB11qnVqALinks to an external site.

“Money Market Reform Awaits Gensler at the SEC,” Bloomberg, March 18, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-18/money-market-reform-awaits-gensler-at-the-sec?sref=hU7uPhn8Links to an external site.

“The SEC Needs to Catch Up on Sustainability,” Bloomberg, January 27, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-27/sec-s-gensler-must-decide-on-new-esg-disclosure-rules?sref=hU7uPhn8Links to an external site.

“Libra 2.0: Why you might like it even if we can’t trust Facebook,”
The Brookings Institute, June 2020,
https://www.brookings.edu/research/facebooks-libra-2-0/Links to an external site.

“How the Lessons of WWII Can Help the U.S. Fight COVID,” Banking with Interest Podcast, May 12, 2020, https://bankingwithinterest.libsyn.com/how-the-lessons-of-wwii-can-help-the-us-fight-covidLinks to an external site.

“Airlines Got the Sweetest Coronavirus Bailout Around,” Bloomberg, May 4, 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-04/airlines-got-the-sweetest-coronavirus-bailout-around?sref=hU7uPhn8Links to an external site.

Coronavirus pandemic: Let’s remember what we learned in WWII, as well as in 2008, Fortune, March 13, 2020, https://fortune.com/2020/03/13/coronavirus-pandemic-recession-2008/Links to an external site.

“Implementing TARP: The Administrative Architecture of the Troubled Asset Relief Program,” a chapter co-authored with Neel Kashkari in the book First Responders, edited by Ben S. Bernanke, Timothy F. Geithner and Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Yale University Press, 2020.

“Is Facebook Libra A Betrayal of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Vision?”, Fortune, July 15, 2019, available at https://fortune.com/2019/07/15/facebook-libra-coin-cryptocurrency-hearing/Links to an external site.

It’s Time to Strengthen the Regulation of Crypto-assets, published by The Brookings Institute, March 2019, available at https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Economis-Studies-Timothy-Massad-Cryptocurrency-Paper.pdf