Treasury’s play for regulatory control puts it on collision course with Fed
Eleanor Mueller and Rachel Witkowski
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s play for more control over US banking regulators, including the Federal Reserve, is about to enter a contentious new phase. The Treasury Department is drafting recommendations for streamlining banking regulators like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, three people familiar with the process told Semafor — after concluding that the agencies and their workers likely can’t be merged without a green light from Congress….“There are two ways to consolidate federal bank regulation. First, you can change the law,” Karen Petrou, co-founder of Federal Financial Analytics, wrote in a recent note to clients. “The other way is for one federal entity to assert all the power it has under law, and maybe more simply to take de facto charge of significant Fed, OCC, and FDIC supervisory and regulatory policy. “Secretary Bessent has now made it clear that the Trump Administration will open Door Number Two,” Petrou added. Bessent’s plan builds on a recent order Trump signed directing the central bank and other independent agencies to submit regulations to the Office of Management and Budget for review, according to three other people familiar with the secretary’s thinking.