White House wants Federal Reserve to become supercop: report

Source: Xinhua | 05-09-2009 08:05

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The White House has wanted the Federal Reserve to become a supercop to regulate the U.S. financial system, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

The report quoted officials as saying that the Obama administration made it clear it was not inclined to divide the job among various regulatory agencies, as suggested by industry and some federal regulators.

The officials, who attended a private one-hour meeting on Friday, said that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner believed that one organization needs to be held responsible for monitoring system wide risk.

On Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also vowed to strengthen oversight of the U.S. financial system.

"Increasing the effectiveness of supervision must be a top priority," said the Fed chief. "It is imperative that we apply the lessons of this experience to strengthen our regulatory system, both at the level of its overall architecture and in its daily execution."

He noted that although reform of the current system is necessary, much can be done within the current framework.

"The Federal Reserve has engaged in extensive introspection and review of the lessons of the crisis and is working diligently to implement what has been learned," he said.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei