Bank Regulation: Consolidation of the Regulatory Agencies (Testimony,
03/04/94, GAO/T-GGD-94-106).

Recently, several proposals have been made to consolidate the Office of
the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Office of Thrift Supervision
(OTS), the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC). Some of these proposals would merge all of these
regulatory groups into a single independent agency--the Federal Banking
Commission--while others would retain more than one regulator. The
relative strengths and weaknesses of each major approach need to be
carefully examined. GAO supports reducing the existing number of federal
banking regulators. However, until the questions about the Federal
Reserve's role on bank supervision can be resolved, GAO believes that it
would be logical to combine OTS, OCC, and FDIC's supervisory
responsibilities for state-chartered banks that are not members of the
Federal Reserve System into one independent agency.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD-94-106
     TITLE:  Bank Regulation: Consolidation of the Regulatory Agencies
      DATE:  03/04/94
   SUBJECT:  Proposed legislation
             Regulatory agencies
             Banking regulation
             Federal agency reorganization
             Interagency relations
             Law enforcement
             Bank examination
             Investigations by federal agencies
             Federal/state relations
             Insured commercial banks

             
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