Friday, March 23, 2012

Outline of US Financial Regulatory System

The US financial regulatory system subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, and maintains the integrity of financial system. The following are the different regulatory bodies of US financial regulatory system:
  • Federal Reserve System
  • Department of the Treasury
  • Securities and Exchange Commission
  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
  • Commodities Future Trading Commission
  • National Credit Union Administration
The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States, commonly referred to as Fed. It is responsible for regulating the U.S monetary system, and also monitors the operations of holding companies, including banks and their groups. The Fed exerts regulatory oversight in few different ways like Board of Governors, Reserve Bank and Federal Open Markets Committee.

The U.S Department of Treasury manages government revenues, involves in duties influencing fiscal policies, regulates U.S imports and exports, collects all U.S revenues including taxes and mints all U.S currencies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is a government agency which works independently. It maintains the U.S securities markets, enforces securities laws, monitors exchanges for stocks, options and other securities.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is an agency insuring savings accounts at member banks to meet certain requirements. Typically, if a U.S. bank holds less than 8% of the assets managing in reserves is considered as "under capitalized." A bank holding less than 6% becomes subject to FDIC regulation - the agency can oust the bank's management or call for other corrective measures.

Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), regulates the derivatives clearing houses that bring together buyers and sellers of future contracts. It approves and regulates the organizations responsible for executing futures trades; and monitors buyers and sellers in an attempt to avoid fraud and other violations.

National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is responsible for chartering and supervising U.S. credit unions. It mainly insures savings in all federal and most state-chartered unions through a fund called the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.

The above are the regulatory bodies of the US financial regulatory system.

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