WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a longtime proponent of deregulation, acknowledged yesterday that failures in a voluntary supervision program for Wall Street’s largest investment banks had contributed to the global financial crisis, and he abruptly shut the program down.

The SEC’s oversight responsibilities will largely shift to the Federal Reserve Board.

Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said he agreed that the oversight program was "fundamentally flawed from the beginning."

"The last six months have made it abundantly clear that voluntary regulation does not work," Cox said in a statement. Cox has begun in recent weeks to call for greater government involvement in the markets.

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