June 17, 2009

Just about every financial regulator has come under fire over the past several months, but most fingers have recently been pointed at the Office of Thrift Supervision. Talking heads and media outlets denounced the agency for being too lenient with the banks under its watch. For instance, AIG set up a noninsurance financial services unit, nominally overseen by the OTS, that engaged in all the risky trades that eventually brought the insurance giant to its knees.

The OTS was also accused of being asleep at the wheel as banks like Washington Mutual and IndyMac careered into insolvency. More recently, the OTS had been embroiled in a scandal in which the Treasury Department charged that the agency knowingly permitted troubled banks to manipulate their books.On Wednesday, the Obama administration is set to announce sweeping changes to the nation's financial regulators.