RALEIGH, N.C. – State Treasurer Janet Cowell urged today North Carolina’s Congressional Delegation to adopt stronger accountability measures governing federal bailout funds.

Cowell called for the adoption of recommendations of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Congressional Oversight Panel’s Special Report on Regulatory Reform issued last month.

The recommendations include: identifying and regulating financial institutions that pose systemic risk; limiting excessive leverage in American financial institutions; modernizing regulatory supervision of the “shadow financial system”; creating an executive pay structure that discourages excessive risk-taking; reforming the current credit rating system; and beginning contingency planning for future financial crises.

“It is vital to both our state and national economies to address the root causes of the financial crisis by fixing the current regulatory system,” Treasurer Cowell said. “We must restore a proper balance between free markets and a responsible, regulatory framework. Adopting the recommendations contained in the Congressional report is a critical step in doing so.”