As US Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. on Monday formally laid out an ambitious plan to overhaul the regulatory apparatus that oversees the country's financial system, senior lawmakers and lobbyists from industries opposed to the plan predicted that most of it would be dead on arrival. The plan, produced by a lame-duck Republican administration facing a Democratic Congress, would significantly expand the authority of the Federal Reserve to oversee financial markets. It would consolidate federal agencies that regulate the securities and commodities futures markets and eliminate a third agency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, which was created during the savings and loan debacle of the late 1980s. Insurance companies, which have long been regulated by the states, would be allowed to choose to have a national charter and be supervised by a new agency under the Treasury Department. Paulson said on Monday that he did not expect the bulk of the plan to be adopted during the current administration - and he recommended that Congress not even consider adopting most of it until after the housing and credit crises ended. That could take many months, perhaps not until Congress all but shuts down for the elections in the fall. “Some may view these recommendations as a response to the circumstances of the day,” Paulson said. “That is not how they are intended.” While the plan promotes a long-term goal of reducing the alphabet soup of agencies that regulate financial institutions, in the shorter run it may achieve the opposite effect. The blueprint listed as one short-term goal the creation of a mortgage commission led by top regulators to set new minimum licensing standards for mortgage brokers and otherwise unregulated financial institutions. __
