SEC Chairman Cox Wants More Regulatory Authority Over Investment Banks

Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said he needs more authority to have mandatory supervision of investment banks.

"Legislative improvements are necessary," said Cox in his opening remarks. "The Commission should be given a statutory mandate to perform this function at the holding company level, along with the authority to require compliance."

He added that investment firms and banks should have common methods for reporting results.

Cox was testifying alongside New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner who said that final judgments on regulatory reform should be reserved until crisis ends.

"The U.S. and global financial systems are going through a very challenging period of adjustment. The critical imperative today is to help facilitate that adjustment and to cushion its impact on the broader economy. The forces that made the system vulnerable to this crisis took a long time to build up, and the system will need some time to work through their aftermath," said Geithner.

The remarks come as the U.S. government begins to consider a massive overhaul of the financial regulatory system which has come under serious pressure since the beginning of the subprime crisis in August of 2007.

By Erik Kevin Franco with contributions from Steve Stecyk and edited by Cristina Markham