Office of the Chief Economist

OCE also oversees the ABA Economic Advisory Committee — a group of chief economists from leading member banks who provide a shared assessment of the economy twice a year for the benefit of ABA members and the public.

Sayee Srinivasan, Chief Economist 

Sayee Srinivasan is Chief Economist for the American Bankers Association. He joined ABA in June 2020 and heads a team responsible for quantitative economic analysis of banking and the broader financial services sector. In addition to providing insights from research to inform policy and advocacy efforts, the team engages extensively with ABA members on issues related to economic trends and their impact on banks and the broader financial system.

Sayee holds PhD and Master’s degrees in Economics, as well as a Master’s in Finance and Bachelor’s in Accounting.

Daniel Brown

Daniel Brown is a Senior Director of Banking and Financial Services Research at the American Bankers Association. Prior to joining ABA, Dan was a regulatory economist at the SBA Office of Advocacy. Daniel also held multiple roles at the House Committee on Small Business on Capitol Hill. Daniel completed his undergraduate degree at The University of Notre Dame and earned a Master’s in Applied Economics from The George Washington University.

Areas of Coverage: Commercial Real Estate, Federal Home Loan Bank System, Housing, MDIs and CDFIs, and Small Business

Nick Flynn

Nick Flynn is a Lead Analyst in Research and Network Administration at the American Bankers Association. Prior to joining ABA, Nick served as an Email Systems Administrator at the International Monetary Fund from 2012-2015. Nick holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Bradley University in Peoria, IL, and a Master’s of Science in Management Information Systems from The George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Areas of Coverage: Project Management, Technology Management/Development/Support, Qualtrics Management and Governance, Database Administration and Management, Vendor Management

Jigar Gohel

Jigar Gohel is an Economic Research Associate at the American Bankers Association. Prior to joining ABA, he earned his undergraduate degree in Economics and Business from Brandeis University, where he received high honors for his senior thesis on the effectiveness of monetary policy.

Area of Coverage: Banking Research, Business of Banking, Macroeconomic Policy Research, Survey Analysis

Aakash Gupta

Aakash Gupta is an Economic Research Associate at the American Bankers Association. From 2021 to 2022, he served as a Finance Assistant with the Ohio Treasurer’s Office, where he helped manage the State Fund and contributed to investment decisions. Aakash earned his undergraduate degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and holds a Master’s in Public and International Affairs, with a concentration in International Political Economy, from the University of Pittsburgh.

Areas of Coverage: Banking Research, Mergers and Acquisitions, Housing, Survey Analysis, Macroeconomic Policy Research

Olivia Hilton

Olivia Hilton joined the American Bankers Association in September 2021 and serves as the association’s survey specialist. In this role, she helps the banking sector understand important trends through data and research. Prior to joining ABA, Olivia worked in different industries such as manufacturing, healthcare and hospitality. In her career, she has helped many organizations learn how to improve their position in the market by using market, social and economic research. Olivia received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of the Philippines. She also completed a graduate program in Survey Design and Data Analysis at George Washington University.

Areas of Coverage: Surveys and Benchmarking

Warren Hrung

Warren Hrung is currently the Head of Research at the American Bankers Association. He began his career as a tax economist at the US Department of the Treasury before joining the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he held various analytical and leadership positions in multiple groups until 2022. He also spent two years on a secondment to the International Data Hub at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. In addition, Warren is a past President of the Society of Government Economists.

Warren graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Economics and holds a PhD from UC-Berkeley, also in Economics.

Brittany Kleinpaste

Brittany Kleinpaste is a Vice President, Banking and Financial Services Research at the American Bankers Association. Prior to joining ABA, Brittany was a member of the Community Banking Supervision and Regulation division at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. Brittany's previous experiences include time at larger financial institutions where she gained extensive knowledge of the U.S. regulatory reports. Brittany completed her undergraduate degrees at Michigan State University and earned a Master’s in Accounting from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Areas of Coverage: Bank Regulatory Reporting, Banking Industry Analysis

Ryan Lee

Ryan Lee is the manager of the Economic Research and Policy team at the American Bankers Association, where he leads a team of research associates conducting analysis on banking policy and regulation. Prior to joining ABA, Ryan participated in an internship in the office of U.S. Senator Mike Crapo.

Ryan received his B.A. in Economics and Public Policy from the University of Virginia.

Patrick Mitchell

Patrick Mitchell is a Senior Vice President in the Office of the Chief Economist and Head of Economic Policy Research at the American Bankers Association, where he leads strategic analysis on banking policy, financial stability, and the evolving risk environment for insured institutions. Patrick previously served as Director of the Division of Insurance and Research at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, overseeing deposit insurance fund management, industry risk assessment, economic research, and international coordination. Before joining the public sector, Patrick worked in structured finance and capital markets where he managed complex credit exposures across corporate and structured products. Patrick earned his MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served as a US Army officer before beginning his career in finance.

Areas of Coverage: Banking policy, deposit insurance, banking industry analysis, financial stability

Maggie Persse

Maggie Persse is an Economic Research Associate at the American Bankers Association. Maggie joined ABA after completing her undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of Oregon in 2023.

Areas of coverage: Survey Analysis, Banking Research, Macroeconomic Policy Research

John Paul Rothenberg

John Paul Rothenberg is a Vice President, Banking and Financial Services Research at the American Bankers Association. Before joining the ABA, he spent over a decade at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he focused on derivative contract design, data, and risk management. He later served as Deputy Chief Risk Officer at LedgerX, where he developed margin models for cryptocurrency products. John Paul is a CFA® Charterholder and holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Areas of coverage: Quantitative modeling, Crypto-currencies, Basel III requirements, Stress testing

Nur Banu Simsek

Nur Banu Simsek is a Research Data Analyst at the American Bankers Association where she contributes to quantitative analysis, data validation, and research efforts using key regulatory datasets. Her work spans a range of projects, including the development of internal data tools, reporting pipelines, and dashboards used to analyze trends in banking access and performance.

Prior to joining ABA, Nur Banu worked as a software quality engineer and business analyst, with a focus on test automation and data integrity. She brings a strong technical foundation in Python, SQL, and cloud-based environments to her current research.

Nur Banu holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. from CUNY Graduate Center.

Areas of Coverage: Data Analysis and Refinement, Python and SQL Development, Reporting

John Vermillion

John Vermillion is an Economic Research Associate at the American Bankers Association. Prior to this role, he earned a B.S. in Economics from Virginia Tech and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Financial Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. Before joining ABA, John worked at TAC Technologies and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he served as a Risk Analyst specializing in quantitative modeling on the CCAP team within the Office of Risk Management.

Areas of Coverage: Financial Market Research and Quantitative Analysis, Credit Cards, Banking Research, Macroeconomic Policy Research

Yikai Wang

Yikai Wang is a Vice President, Banking and Financial Services Research at the American Bankers Association. Before joining ABA, Yikai worked as a managing director in risk management at Citi, where she headed the economic scenario generation team. She also worked for HSBC, Moody’s Analytics, AIG and Bear Stearns in her 20-year Wall Street career. Yikai holds a PhD in financial economics from the City University of New York, and a MS and BS in Finance from Tsinghua University in China.

Areas of Coverage: Macroeconomics, CECL, Nonbank Financial Institutions, Stablecoins

Avery Weisel

Avery Weisel is a Senior Director of Banking and Financial Services Research at the American Bankers Association. Before joining ABA, Avery held analytics and strategy roles at Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Ernst & Young. A North Carolina native, Avery also serves on the executive board of the North Carolina Society in Washington, DC. She holds an MS in Business Analytics from the University of Virginia and a BS in Mathematics from Haverford College.

Areas of Coverage: Consumer and Retail Banking, Banking Access, Business of Banking, Banking Policy