Jay Clayton, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said the office is well-positioned to focus on national security and combating terrorism financing and money laundering.
"New York City is the hub for capital flows and communications, which makes that oversight at policing and prosecutorial function particularly important," Clayton said at an event at the Japan Society in New York on Wednesday.
"It's basically continuing to establish that we play by the rules of the road here in the U.S."
When asked about details about his potential plans for SDNY, Clayton told Reuters: "It's an amazing office. The personnel, their qualifications, their experience."
Clayton, a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell who specializes in mergers and capital-raising, also said that the regulatory regime for mergers and acquisitions will likely become faster during next administration, with potential exceptions where transactions raise issues around trade and consumer protection.
"If you want your M&A deal to go through and you want the government to feel good about it, make sure you have the consumer on your side," he said.
Clayton also spoke about cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, which has been met with skepticism by some financiers.
"It doesn't surprise me that people got it wrong," he said. "Now it's providing a function that we really didn't have before, which is a fairly frictionless lubricant between economies."
