US unveils financial system overhaul

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-26 23:30

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the financial system designed to impose greater regulation on major players like hedge funds.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told lawmakers that the changes are needed to fix the flaws exposed by the current financial crisis, the worst to hit the country in seven decades.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner speaks during his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 26, 2009. [Agencies]

The goal is to repair a system that has proven "too unstable and fragile," he said.

"Over the past 18 months, we have faced the most severe global financial crisis in generations," Geithner said in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. "To address this will require comprehensive reform. Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game."

The administration's proposal, which will require congressional approval, would represent a major expansion of federal authority over the financial system. It would impose tougher standards on financial institutions judged to be so big that their failure would represent a risk to the entire system.

It also would extend federal regulations for the first time to all trading in financial derivatives, exotic financial instruments such as credit default swaps that were blamed for much of the damage in the meltdown.

The administration also wants larger hedge funds to be required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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