Statement Announcing Membership of the Commission on Financial Structure and Regulation

IN MY ECONOMIC REPORT last February, I pointed out that our economy must have strong and innovative financial institutions if our national savings are to be utilized effectively. At that time I announced that I would appoint a commission to study our financial structure and make recommendations to me for needed changes. On April 22, I appointed Mr. Reed O. Hunt, formerly chief executive officer of Crown Zellerbach, to head the Commission. Today I am announcing its formal organization and the names of the outstanding citizens who have agreed to serve as members.

The Commission has a broad mandate: to review and study the structure, operation, and regulation of the private financial institutions in the United States for the purpose of formulating recommendations which would improve the functioning of the private financial system. Just as the mandate is broad, no rigid timetable for interim or final reports has been set. We would hope to receive the final report, however, before the beginning of the second session of the 92d Congress--or by December 1971.

Since the announcement of his appointment in April, Mr. Hunt has been working with administration officials and private economists in planning the Commission's study. The recommendations that have resulted from this study will be presented to the Commission at its first meeting, in the latter part of June.

A great deal of top-level study and planning has gone into the formation of this Commission. I am optimistic that the result will be a series of constructive and achievable legislative proposals--proposals which will advance our basic goal of shaping the financial system so as to meet the credit needs of the U.S. economy and its people in the decades ahead.

The members of the Commission on Financial Structure and Regulation are:

REED OLIVER HUNT, Chairman, former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Crown Zellerbach Corporation.

MORRIS D. CRAWFORD, JR., chairman, The Bowery Savings Bank, New York, N.Y.

JAMES HOWARD EDGERTON, president, California Federal Savings and Loan Association, Los Angeles, Calif.

RICHARD G. GILBERT, president, Citizens Savings, Canton, Ohio.

ALAN GREENSPAN, president, Townsend-Greenspan and Company, New York, N.Y.

WALTER S. HOLMES, JR., president, C.I.T. Financial Corporation, New York, N.Y.

LANE KIRKLAND, secretary-treasurer, AFLCIO, Washington, D.C.

REX J. MORTHLAND, president, Peoples Bank and Trust Company, Selma, AIR.

WILLIAM H. MORTON, president, American Express Company, New York, N.Y.

DONALD S. MACNAUGHTON chairman, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, N.J.

ELLMORE C. PATTERSON, president, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, New York, N.Y.

K. A. RANDALL, vice chairman, United Virginia Bankshares, Inc., Richmond, Va.

RALPH S. REGULA, attorney, Navarre, Ohio.

DR. R. J. SAULNIER, professor of economics, Barnard College, New York, N.Y.

ROBERT E STEWART III, chairman, First National Bank in Dallas, Dallas, Tex.