The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may be stripped of some of its powers as soon as next week as part of a regulatory reorganisation by the Obama administration.
According to Bloomberg reports the Federal Reserve is likely to be given more authority to supervise financial firms deemed too big to fail.
Other changes may include giving oversight of mutual funds to a bank regulator and a new agency to policy consumer financial products.
The SEC has come under fire for missing the credit crunch and failing to protect people from the $65 billion Ponzi scheme masterminded by Bernard Madoff.
Stanley Sporkin, a former federal judge and enforcement chief at the SEC, said it would be a ‘terrible mistake’ to strip its powers.
‘Whatever the SEC has done or didn’t do, it is still the premier investor protection agency around,’ he said.
Bloomberg said SEC chairman Mary Schapiro has been absent from negotiations and has pledged to fight any attempt to diminish the SEC.