What Do You Think About More Federal Regulation of Wall Street?

With a federal-government backed bailout of Bear Stearns on Wall Street and a mortgage crisis on Main Street, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. came out today with a set of proposals to increase regulations on financial institutions.

The proposals call for creating a new federal commission to oversee mortgage brokers, giving the Federal Reserve access to financial services companies’ data about their liquidity and capital backing, and imposing reforms to increase federal oversight of the securities industry.

As shown with Sarbanes-Oxley, any time government gets involved in regulating accounting and finance systems, IT systems will play a key role. There’s a lot of work to do (and potentially lots of costly consultants to hire); new “compliance solutions” to consider; and budget battles to wage. (Of course, some CIOs and other IT executives find that such regulations provide them and their IT departments with a higher profile.

Cast your vote below in the instant poll we’ve created to gauge your reaction to these newest regulation proposals and their possible impact on IT.