Former Robinhood executive Benjamin Melnicki is joining Cross River Bank, a New Jersey community bank catering to FinTechs, as the chief compliance officer (CCO) for its cryptocurrency team, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday (June 17).
Robinhood’s former CCO for crypto, Melnicki left in December and joined Cross River last month to oversee cryptocurrency compliance.
A spokeswoman for Cross River Bank confirmed that Melnicki was appointed COO and declined further comment. A spokeswoman for Robinhood declined to comment, according to the report.
See also: Cross River Bank on How Embedded Finance Can Accelerate Payments in Niche Markets
Robinhood recruited Melnicki last year from digital asset manager Grayscale Investments, where he was hired as its compliance chief in early 2021 from tech firm Ripple Labs. Melnicki was regulatory counsel and Americas head of regulatory affairs at Ripple and global regulatory counsel at Blockchain. He also held various regulatory or compliance positions at Bank of America Corp., Cantor Fitzgerald and Puerto Rico’s Noble Bank International.
Read more: Crypto Talent War Refocuses on Lawyers as Investment Booms, Regulations Loom
Founded in 2008, Cross River is headquartered in Fort Lee, New Jersey, with branches in Teaneck, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, New York. The bank was founded by CEO and Chairman Gilles Gade and has over 800 employees and has more than 80 partnerships, according to its website.
While the bank offers traditional financial services, it largely uses its position as a chartered and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-member bank to help FinTech firms offer services like moving money over the banking system’s rails, the WSJ reported. Many FinTech services would be difficult to offer under current U.S. rules since most are nonbank entities.
Related: Revolut Partners With Cross River Bank to Offer Financial Services in US
Melnicki was replaced in his compliance role on Robinhood’s crypto team by James Nguyen, the former president and general counsel of the company’s crypto division.
Robinhood attorney Norman Ashkenas, hired in September 2020 to serve as compliance chief for its brokerage business, will take on the role of top compliance executive for all Robinhood-related entities in January, Bloomberg Law reported earlier this week.
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