In its most recent review of the banking law - the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act the Congress gave the Federal Reserve umbrella supervisory authority for the new financial holding companies as well as preserving its authority for bank holding companies and for member banks chartered by the states.
To continue to fulfill its central bank role as crisis manager, I believe the Federal Reserve must continue to have a deep, meaningful, and, most important, practical, understanding of the largest, most systemically important, banks operating in the United States, as well as an understanding of the markets in which they operate.