Cox wants SEC's investment bank oversight permanent

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Securities and Exchange Chairman Christopher Cox said on Thursday he hopes to make the agency's program supervising the top five U.S. investment banks "permanent and mandatory" through legislation.

Cox told reporters after testifying at a Senate Banking hearing that there would not be consolidated supervision of investment banks if it were not for the SEC's current voluntary program, which was created by the agency in 2004.

The collapse of Bear Stearns' BSC.N last month shows that the value of the SEC supervisory program "can never be doubted again," Cox said. On March 16, JPMorgan (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) agreed to buy Bear for a fire-sale price of $2 per share in a Sunday night announcement that shocked financial markets because Bear's stock had traded above $60 per share just the week before. The offer has since been raised to $10 per share. (Reporting by Karey Wutkowski, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)