The Bush administration March 31 proposed the most far-ranging overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson AP PHOTO

The plan would change how the government regulates thousands of businesses from the biggest U.S. banks and investment houses down to the local insurance agent and mortgage broker.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled the 218-page plan in a speech in the Treasury's ornate Cash Room. He declared that a strong financial system was important not just for Wall Street but also for working Americans.

The administration's plan has already drawn criticism from Democrats that it does not go far enough to deal with abuses in mortgage lending and securities trading that were exposed by the current credit crisis.

The plan, which would require congressional approval for its biggest changes, seeks to trim a hodgepodge collection of overlapping jurisdictions that date back to the Civil War.

It would give the Federal Reserve more power to protect the stability of the entire financial system while merging day-to-day bank supervision into one agency, down from five.

It also would create one superagency in charge of business conduct and consumer protection, performing many of the functions of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Paulson acknowledged in his remarks that most of the changes will not occur until after a lengthy debate in Congress, leaving it to the next administration to deal with the biggest changes proposed by the report.