Sense on Cents

Regulating Wall Street is not a job for mere mortals. This is a job for Supercop!!

Pardon my lighthearted manner to a truly serious issue, but certain topics just lend themselves to breaking out my Irish wit and this is one of them.

Recall that under President Obama’s initial plans to revamp the financial regulatory structure, the Federal Reserve was to be designated as the uber-regulator or Supercop for Wall Street. Well, the best laid plans do not necessarily play out that way, as the Associated Press reports SEC, FDIC Heads Want New Council to Be Supercop:

Key regulators on Thursday broke with the Obama administration, reaffirming their belief that some new powers to monitor big institutions against financial threats should go to an interagency council, not the Federal Reserve.

Some Republican lawmakers also continued to warn against endowing the Fed with new powers in an overhauled system as Congress slogs through a complex deliberation that could reshape the financial landscape in the wake of a historic crisis.

Under the administration’s financial overhaul proposal, the central bank as “systemic risk regulator” would be able to duplicate and even overrule other regulators.

But Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., stressed to the Senate Banking Committee that crucial role should be played by the new stability oversight council. The body would include the Treasury Department, the Fed, and the two independent agencies headed by Bair and Schapiro.

I am not necessarily for more government bureaucracy and I hope this supercop council is not merely a layer of red tape. I would be very concerned if the Federal Reserve were designated as the sole supercop. Why? I think it would likely hinder the Fed’s ability to be viewed as totally independent. I already believe the Fed has a credibility issue on that front. Being designated as Wall Street’s supercop would only further jeopardize the Fed’s claim of  independence.

Make no mistake about it, though, the efficacy of a proposed supercop is ultimately a question of transparency and integrity. I addressed these points in writing “Future Financial Regulation: Not A Question of Sufficiency, But of Transparency and Integrity.”

I am heartened by the fact that the FDIC under Sheila Bair would be able to play a prominent role in this supercop council. I hold Ms. Bair in high regard. As the AP reports:

Bair testified that an interagency council with strong and extensive authorities “will provide for an appropriate system of checks and balances.” A council “with real teeth … would be highly effective,” Bair said. It would be “tremendous” power to invest in a sole regulator, she said.

Bair also endorsed the proposed creation under the Obama plan of a consumer finance protection agency to oversee areas such as mortgages and credit cards — an idea fiercely opposed by the financial industry.

How will this play out? Sense on Cents will be monitoring developments. Regulating Wall Street is not a job for mere mortals. This is a job for Supercop!!

LD

Related Commentary

Don’t Call the Fed Independent; June 17, 2009

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 9:55 AM and is filed under General, regulation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.