John Snow, the former treasury secretary for the Bush administration, said he supports the Treasury proposal to provide an optional federal charter for insurers.

The insurance industry has too many regulators, Mr. Snow said as he was interviewed Monday night on National Public Television's Charlie Rose Show.

He said the plan to streamline the U.S. financial regulatory system crafted by his successor, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., which contains a call for an optional federal charter, is a “move in the right direction.”

The nation's current regulatory system is not up to the demands of a global financial marketplace, Mr. Snow added. “Paulson is on the right track. We have more regulators than we really need.”

He said he is a fan of the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority, where one regulator oversees all financial activity in the country, including insurance.

“I'd like to see a federal option on insurance,” he said. “One federal regulator instead of fifty [state regulators].”

Mr. Snow said the merging of other regulatory agencies made sense.

“This is all pointing in the right direction,” he remarked.

“We need better regulation that allows for innovation and creativity but keeps the focus on stability of the financial systems,” Mr. Snow said, adding that would mean more regulation for some and less for others.

On one regulatory subject, Sarbanes-Oxley Act financial reporting standards, he said while it was needed, more time should have been taken to examine the reporting requirements. He said the cost of compliance was higher than it needed to be.

Mr. Snow, who is now chairman of Cerberus Capital Management, blamed the current credit crisis on the loosening of lending standards and lowering of interest rates.

“We went on a credit binge,” he said. “Too much money was loaned too easily. Clearly, mistakes were made.”

He also said rating agencies bore some blame for rating securities products at a higher rating than they should have.

When asked by Mr. Rose who was ultimately at fault for allowing the crisis to happen Mr. Snow said, “We all should have known better, but that's looking through the rearview mirror.”

He said in the future, those selling securities should have more “skin in the game” and also greater disclosure by the dealers.

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