FACTBOX-Major U.S. financial regulators face shake-up

June 9 (Reuters) - The Obama administration and lawmakers from both parties in Congress want to shake up the federal agencies that regulate the U.S. financial system.

But proposals for restructuring face resistance from financial interests and established bureaucracies, despite the failure of existing regulators to prevent the current financial crisis.

Here are the major regulators involved, their duties and changes they may face:

* TREASURY DEPARTMENT

Treasury is a cabinet-level department tasked primarily with financing the government and collecting taxes. It plays a major role in bond markets. It regulates banks mainly through two units: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).

Some lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, favor merging OTS and OCC to create a single banking regulator that could also take over bank supervision duties now carried out by the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The administration has been cautious about a merger. Advocates say it would help prevent financial institutions from shopping around to find the most lax regulator. For instance, American International Group (AIG.N), although mainly an insurer, was regulated by OTS before being bailed out by taxpayers for $180 billion.

Apart from OCC and OTS, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is President Barack Obama's point man on financial regulation reform, coordinating administration strategy and handling major announcements on policy initiatives.

Treasury also manages the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, which has been used to bail out AIG, automakers General Motors GMGMQ.PK and Chrysler LLC, as well as major banks including Citigroup (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N).

* OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY

OCC charters, regulates and supervises national banks, including some of the nation's largest. Formed in 1863, it has about 3,000 employees and is led by Comptroller John Dugan.

* OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION

OTS regulates thrift institutions. Formed after the 1980s-1990s savings and loan crisis, OTS has about 1,000 employees.

Its record as regulator of bailed-out insurer AIG and of Washington Mutual, the biggest bank to fail in U.S. history, has led some lawmakers to suggest that OTS be closed down and its duties taken over by other regulators, possibly OCC.

John Bowman is acting director of OTS.

* FEDERAL RESERVE

The Fed is an independent agency that controls the nation's monetary policy, while also supervising state-chartered banks that opt into the Fed system. Created in 1913, it has about 2,700 employees involved in supervision and regulation.

The Fed under Chairman Ben Bernanke has radically expanded its role in the economy, injecting hundreds of billions of dollars of liquidity into the financial system through loans and purchases of commercial paper, certificates of deposit, Treasury securities and securities backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other federal housing agencies.

The administration initially favored designating the Fed to take on a new role as a "systemic risk regulator" that would monitor and intervene to address emerging financial dangers in the economy. But many lawmakers question whether the Fed is up to the job based on its uneven record in the past as a bank regulator. More recently the administration has said it is also open to the idea of an inter-agency systemic risk council.

There have also been suggestions of stripping the Fed of its consumer protection responsibilities and reducing its role as the primary supervisor for certain banks.

* FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORP

The FDIC is an independent agency that insures deposits in banks and thrifts. It also examines and supervises state-chartered banks that do not join the Fed system, and is funded through fees that banks pay for deposit insurance.

Created in 1933 during the Great Depression, the agency has about 5,000 employees. It is chaired by Sheila Bair, an outspoken advocate for financial reform within the administration who is widely admired on Capitol Hill.

The administration wants to give the FDIC the power to seize and wind down the financial positions of large, troubled non-bank financial institutions, using the agency's existing power to do this for banks as a model.

OCC's Dugan and much of the banking industry have questioned whether the FDIC is suited to such "resolution authority" for dismantling complex financial conglomerates.

* SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

The SEC regulates public corporations, stock exchanges, brokers, mutual funds, municipal bonds and corporate auditors. Formed in 1934, it has about 3,500 employees and is led by Chairman Mary Schapiro.

Some lawmakers favor merging the SEC with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, arguing that the two agencies do closely similar work.

But such a combination is viewed as unlikely due to resistance from the agencies themselves and conflicts in Congress between committees that separately oversee the SEC and CFTC and refuse to surrender their jurisdictions.

The administration wants to establish a financial products safety commission to protect consumers from abusive and shoddy financial products and services. But it is viewed as likely that the SEC's investor protection role will be preserved.

* COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION

The CFTC oversees commodity and financial futures. With about 490 employees, it was formed in 1974.

Gary Gensler, its new chairman, opposes merging the agency with the SEC. Both agencies are expected to play key roles in the administration's proposal to regulate the over-the-counter derivatives market. (Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh, Karey Wutkowski, John Poirier, Glenn Somerville, Alister Bull, David Lawder, Christopher Doering; Editing by Leslie Adler)