“The suggestion that we’re going to get to a unilateral bank regulator, something equivalent to the Financial Services Authority, is simply wrong.”

That’s House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank talking to CNBC yesterday about the Obama administration’s consideration of a plan to create a single bank regulator. Frank said such an entity would be comparable to the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority, which has been criticized for lax oversight and other shortcomings.

According to Congressional Quarterly:

According to industry sources, the administration is considering a proposal to create a single banking regulator rather than maintain the current system in which banks are overseen in part by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). Details of the plan and exactly how it would work have not been finalized.
Under the broader administration plan, the Federal Reserve would assume new authority to oversee systemic risk in the financial services industry. The FDIC would be given authority to take into receivership failing bank holding companies, according to industry sources.
In addition, there have been discussions in the administration about whether to create a single agency that would essentially take on the duties of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Frank, whose committee oversees the SEC, expressed concerns about this idea as well.

That’s good news, because I have concerns about the idea that the entire monetary system be turned over to Barney Frank.