Bernanke: Fed has greater power to combat crises

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday that the Federal Reserve is drafting rules to close large insolvent banks without bringing down the broader financial system, one of many steps regulators must take to prevent another financial crisis.

Bernanke said the absence of a process to deal with systemically important institutions in 2008 left regulators facing the “terrible choices of a bailout or allowing a potentially destabilizing collapse.” His comments were made at a conference sponsored by the International Monetary Fund.