Washington - A key US government regulator Wednesday said it was considering new public disclosure requirements for banks in the wake of a broad financial crisis.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Christopher Cox called for investment banks to report capital and liquidity levels as part of an overhaul of the agency's oversight practices.

Government regulators have been criticized for failing to keep enough checks on investment banks and lenders that have been at the core of a mortgage and financial crisis in the United States.

Cox warned that the government's oversight framework was "dangerously behind the times" and criticized deregulation measures from the 1990s that effectively left investment banks unsupervised.

The SEC manages a voluntary supervision programme for investment banks in the United States, but there is no required oversight role.

"Very soon, the SEC or if not the SEC then another regulator must be given the express authority ... to supervise the nation's investment banks on a consolidated basis," Cox told a security traders conference in Washington.

Poor capital-to-liquidity ratios have left banks struggling to raise emergency cash as they reported billions of dollars in write- downs of mortgage-related assets since August.

Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest US investment firm, was threatened with bankruptcy in March but was bailed out in a Federal Reserve- backed sale to rival JPMorgan Chase.

"One of the lessons learned from the Bear Stearns experience is that in a crisis of confidence, there is great need for reliable, current information about capital and liquidity," Cox told reporters after the conference. "Making that information public can certainly help."

The Treasury Department in March laid out a series of new proposals to streamline oversight of financial institutions by government agencies. (dpa)