The FDIC Board of Directors today approved the creation of a new Office of Complex Financial Institutions (CFI) and Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection (DCP) to help carry out its responsibilities under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The CFI will perform continuous review and oversight of bank holding companies with more than $100 billion in assets as well as non-bank financial companies designated as systemically important by the new Financial Stability Oversight Council. CFI will also be responsible for carrying out the FDIC’s new authority under the Act to implement orderly liquidations of bank holding companies and non-bank financial companies that fail. The FDIC believes the absence of such authority exacerbated the recent financial crisis, when such firms as AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns became insolvent.

See the FDIC’s full press release here.

Separately the Wall Street Journal reported (subscription required) that federal regulators expressed concern that certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act could do more harm than good.