In one of its final acts under Secretary Henry Paulson, the Treasury Department issued a new requirement that chief executives of banks getting aid under the $700 billion bailout program certify that they are complying with its executive compensation limits.

Within the next few years, Barack Obama is likely to fulfill his pledge to try to revamp Social Security despite the political pitfalls involved, financial experts said. That most likely means a package of tax increases and benefit reductions that would fall most heavily on upper-income wage earners.

President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee as SEC chairman, told a Senate panel today she might try to change the way credit-rating agencies are paid and expand regulatory oversight of hedge funds and credit default swaps.

President Bush will ask Congress to release the second $350 billion of the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program at the request of President-elect Barack Obama.