Obama says may consolidate market regulators

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that there may be a need to consolidate U.S. financial market regulators as part of a broader push to bring stability back to the financial system.

Speaking at a news conference at which he announced his pick for the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and several other regulatory appointments, Obama said his team would soon release a "very detailed plan" on how it intends to approach the regulatory challenges.

"I can tell you that just in principle for us to, for example, focus narrowly on bank regulation when huge amounts of money in the financial system are sloshing around outside of banks, that's a problem. Those are systemic risks," he said.

He added that he saw the need "to potentially consolidate some of the regulatory agencies out there" and to generally strengthen the regulatory tools at government's disposal.

"The American people right now are feeling frustration. There's not a lot of adult supervision out there," he said.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)