Prof. Sarah Hammer

Co-Chair

Bretton Woods Committee Working Group on AI

Professor Sarah Hammer is Executive Director of Financial Technology Initiatives at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Hammer is also Chief Executive Officer of Wharton Cypher Financial Technology Accelerator. Hammer is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Hammer is also Affiliated Scholar at the Penn Program on Regulation.

Previously, Hammer was Managing Director of the Center for Innovation in Finance and Senior Fellow of the Alternative Investments Program at the Wharton School. Hammer also led the launch of the University of Pennsylvania’s first digital asset, unique 3D intellectual property that memorializes the invention of the mRNA technology which enabled the COVID-19 vaccines.

Hammer is also a board member of the International Telecommunications Union at the United Nations (ITU). The ITU is the UN specialized agency responsible for information and communication technology. She is also an advisor at the World Economic Forum, the Dubai International Finance Centre, and the Digital Dollar Project for Central Bank Digital Currency.

Previously, Hammer was Acting Secretary of the Department of Banking and Securities for Pennsylvania, having led the Department through the banking crisis of March 2023. The Department regulates and supervises ~290,000 bank and non-bank financial entities, totaling $3.5 trillion in AUM.

Hammer was also previously Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions and Director of the Office of Financial Institutions Policy at the US Department of the Treasury. In this role, she led the Department’s policy responsibilities involving financial institutions, as well as oversaw the Federal Insurance Office and the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Compliance Policy (cybersecurity).

While at U.S. Treasury, Hammer also led the cross-functional team conducting a full review and report on the financial regulatory framework. Hammer also served on the board of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and assisted the U.S. Treasury Secretary in fulfilling responsibilities on the board of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

Hammer has held various leadership positions throughout financial services in general management, portfolio management, trading, marketing, research, and analytics at the Vanguard Group, PIMCO, JP Morgan Chase, BlackRock, and Tudor Investments.

Hammer earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, and a Master of Studies from Oxford University.

Speaking at

2:00–3:30pmThu 25 JunGFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 3, Ground FloorOpen
Blueprint for Digital Assets

Navigating the New Digital Order: Regulatory Divergence, Monetary Architecture, and a Path toward Coordination

GFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 3, Ground FloorOpen
About this session

Digital assets, programmable money, and AI-driven transactions are crossing borders at increased speed. But the rules governing them are being written jurisdiction by jurisdiction, with no shared architecture in sight. As the US advances GENIUS Act rules for private-sector stablecoins, the EU deepens MiCA and pursues a digital euro, and China scales its state-backed e-CNY, three major economies are building divergent governance frameworks around one underlying technology — with significant implications for cross-border payments, monetary policy transmission, and AI in the global financial system.
This policy divergence is a compliance challenge for market participants, but it is also the early stage of a structural buildup. When domestically rational policy choices generate internationally costly spillovers — and when no coordinating mechanism exists to manage them — fragmentation compounds over time until the cost of inaction becomes prohibitive. Digital currencies and AI governance are following this trajectory, and while the window to get ahead of it remains open, it is closing.
Against this backdrop, the Bretton Woods Committee will convene a closed roundtable at Point Zero Forum on Thursday, June 25th to bring together global policymakers, central bankers, regulators, and private sector leaders to stress-test the diagnosis. This discussion will directly inform the Bretton Woods Committee's upcoming work, with a focus on the defining digital governance challenge of the moment: whether coordination across jurisdictions can accelerate to match the digital rails being built beneath the global financial system.
The roundtable will be a 90-minute discussion featuring 10 minutes of scene-setting remarks from featured speakers, followed by an open exchange among the broader group. A brief framing paper will be circulated in advance. The core question animating the discussion: What are the costs of continued fragmentation — and what global coordination mechanisms are necessary to manage the associated risks and opportunities?

Featured speakers

Hosted by

Prof. Sarah Hammer

Speaking at

Navigating the New Digital Order: Regulatory Divergence, Monetary Architecture, and a Path toward Coordination