Biz Brief: Bernanke: Fed Now More Focused on 'Big Picture'

The Federal Reserve is less focused on individual banks than on the health of the nation's financial system as a whole, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday. That's just one lesson the U.S. central bank has learned in the wake of the financial crisis that rocked markets and economies worldwide in 2008.

"Regulatory agencies must thus supervise financial institutions and critical infrastructures with an eye toward overall financial stability as well as the safety and soundness of each individual institution and system," Bernanke said in a speech at a conference in New York.

The gathering of 15 leading academics, called the Squam Lake Group, compiled a list of fixes for the nation's financial framework to prevent future crises. One of the group's recommendations was the creation of a single bank regulatory agency. But Bernanke pushed back on the idea, saying it might create "regulatory blind spots."