The Evolution of the Bank Regulatory Structure: A Reappraisal

Abstract

The banking industry is regulated by an elaborate institutional structure that exercises extensive authority over virtually every aspect of banking activity. The sheer size and complexity of the system is overwhelming and has been a source of confusion in the administration of the supervision and regulation, of banks. For this very reason, the Task Group on Regulation of Financial Services, chaired by Vice President George Bush, has studied the federal regulatory structure in order to reorganize and improve it. The agency reorganization proposed by the Task Group, however, merely rearranges authority under the existing agency structure and does not reduce the number of bank regulators.