Plan for Single Bank Regulator Gets Closer

Updated from 12:23 a.m. EDT

Officials of the Obama administration are close to recommending that Congress create a single regulator to oversee the entire banking sector, a report says.

The new agency is expected to be a major part of a proposal that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House officials will send Capitol Hill in a few weeks with the goal of overhauling supervision of the financial markets, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Journal reports Obama administration officials also are considering an agency that would monitor financial products offered to consumers and a regulator for stronger investor protection. ...