TREASURY PLANS ONE REGULATOR FOR BANKS, S&Ls

The Bush administration wants to streamline bank supervision by creating a new ``super regulator'' for all financial institutions as part of its drive to overhaul the troubled banking system, industry sources say. The Treasury Department is preparing a plan to replace the tangled web of regulators with a single agency covering banks, thrifts, and other financial service companies. The Treasury plan, due out in the next few weeks, is also expected to seek to overhaul deposit insurance and allow banks to enter new businesses.

Banks are currently supervised by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Savings-and-loan institutions are supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision, and credit unions by the National Credit Union Administration. Industry sources familiar with the Treasury plan said the Fed would be left looking after the 50 or so largest banks.