Obama, McCain promise to tackle Wall Street reform

White House candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have promised to move quickly to reform Wall Street, with both blaming an antiquated regulatory structure for the financial meltdown.

As the Federal Reserve and US Treasury grappled with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Democratic presidential nominee Mr Obama said policy-makers lacked the tools needed to contain the problems and were "making it up as they go along".

"Each problem ends up requiring a patchwork solution," Mr Obama, an Illinois senator, said on his campaign plane as he travelled in Colorado.

A top adviser to Mr McCain, Mr Obama's rival in the November 4 election, said the Republican nominee believed a network of regulatory agencies should be combined and given broader powers to achieve transparency.

"The Washington regulatory structure over Wall Street is about 70 years old now," said Carly Fiorina, senior economic adviser to the Arizona senator.

"He's been saying for some time and again today that this would be a top priority - that he will, in his administration, put an end to the abuses that we're seeing in both Washington and on Wall Street," Mr Fiorina said in a telephone interview.

Mr Obama has long urged a modernising of the financial system. He called for it in a speech at Nasdaq a year ago and outlined a plan for an overhaul of Wall Street regulations in March.

Mr McCain, whose economic message usually focuses more on his promise to keep taxes low and reduce government spending, put greater emphasis on Monday on the need for regulatory reform.

The Republican candidate joined Mr Obama in saying it would be a high priority for his administration in the first year.

Mr Fiorina, a former chief executive of computer giant Hewlett-Packard, said Mr McCain would start working on Wall Street regulatory reform within the first 100 days of his presidency.

"There's a patchwork of various regulatory agencies, which means that no one sees the whole picture, and so he would consolidate and streamline those regulatory agencies and give them more authority and accountability to demand transparency from Wall Street," she said.

Mr Obama said quick action was needed to shore up the shattered faith of investors.

"I think we have to move on it very quickly because my suspicion is the deteriorating confidence in the credit markets, in the financial markets, is not going to immediately bounce back," he said.

The financial crisis slammed global markets on Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average sinking 504 points, the steepest drop since the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.