Obama Considers Banking Czar

As part of a major financial-system overhaul, senior administration officials are debating whether to create a single agency to control the banking industry. The current system allows banks to choose from one of three regulators: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Because bank fees fund these regulators, agencies vie for business by offering more relaxed supervision. This system also creates coverage gaps by splitting up the largest banks among agencies, an oversight many experts believe contributed to the financial meltdown. Also up for deliberation: officials may give the FDIC the ability to seize large financial firms to thwart their collapse—both Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said having this authority could have allowed the government to sidestep the financial crisis entirely. The regulation proposals should be revealed in the next few weeks, but the single-agency bit could face major opposition from states, which have the power to contract and supervise banks.