The Obama administration, trying to crack down on abuses exposed by the financial crisis, is considering creation of a regulatory commission to protect consumers of financial products such as credit cards and mortgages, according to administration and industry officials. These officials said the administration has been exploring such an approach in meetings the past few days with executives of the financial services industry. The proposal could set off a turf war among federal agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the various bank regulatory agencies.
There was a discussion of the proposal at a dinner Tuesday at the Treasury Department attended by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, director of the president’s National Economic Council. Geithner has said extensive changes were needed to make sure that the current financial crisis, the worst in seven decades, is never repeated.
The proposal the administration was considering would centralize the enforcement of laws that protect consumers of financial products, such as credit cards, mortgages and mutual funds. That effort currently is spread across a number of federal and state agencies, including the Federal Reserve, the SEC and the Federal Trade Commission. Under one possible approach, some federal banking agencies might be combined, and some powers over consumer products might be consolidated into a new body.
