The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation issued a report that called for consolidating the regulatory structure by increasing the Federal Reserve Board's authority, requiring more disclosures from banks and increasing oversight of credit default swaps.
The report, which the independent, bipartisan group released Tuesday, contains 57 recommendations for the financial structure.
The group calls for creating a Financial Services Authority to oversee all aspects of the financial system. The agency would take the place of all or parts of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
In addition, the group recommended giving the Fed the authority to oversee systemically important institutions while maintaining its monetary policy and its functions as lender of last resort.
The new structure could have the Fed supervising all systemically important financial institutions and the FSA supervising other financial institutions, the report said; include letting one of the two agencies supervise all financial institutions is another option.
The report called for listing and trading of credit default swaps on exchanges, increasing the disclosures of bank metrics, increasing disclosures to investors and enhancing global coordination.
"We are optimistic that in the wake of the worst financial crisis in our lifetime, policymakers will embrace bold reform," Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School and co-chairman of the committee, said in a press release.
The Treasury Department is set to release a report of its own on regulatory restructuring in mid-June.
