TREASURY Secretary Henry Paulson is seeking these changes to financial regulation:
Allow the Federal Reserve to dispatch examiners to check the books of commercial banks and other segments of the financial services industry.
Shut down the Office of Thrift Supervision and transfer its functions to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates nationally chartered banks.
Merge the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates stock trading, with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates futures trades for oil, grains and various other commodities.
Create a national regulator for the insurance industry, which is now largely governed by the states.
Create a Mortgage Origination Commission to try to address the abuses exposed in the current tidal wave of mortgage defaults.
AP