Paulson Seeks Expanded Fed Powers

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today will urge Congress to broaden the Federal Reserve’s oversight role on Wall Street, giving it the authority to demand data from financial institutions to help prevent incidents like the Bear Stearns collapse. Any major change in regulatory authority would have to be approved by Congress, reports the Washington Post.

"Our nation has come to expect the Federal Reserve to step in to avert events that pose unacceptable systemic risk," Paulson plans to say. "We should quickly consider how to appropriately give the Fed the authority to access necessary information and the responsibility to intervene in order to protect the system, so they can carry out the role our nation has come to expect." (More Federal Reserve stories.)