The Government Accountability Office probe into regulatorycapture among financial service regulators was expanded to includethe NCUA and other regulators, a key GAO official confirmedThursday.

“Supervisory independence is something all relevant entitiesshould be thinking about – we certainly think about it at GAO,”Lawrance Evans, the GAO's director of financial markets andcommunity investment, told CU Times.

In March, the GAO said it was investigating whether the New YorkFed was being too lax in supervising banks under its oversight.That probe came as a result of a request from House FinancialServices Committee ranking Democrat Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), ranking Democraton the panel's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

That same month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said the regulatory process was biased infavor of industries being regulated.

The initial probe recently was expanded, Evans said.

“To provide Congress with a full appreciation of the potentialfor regulatory capture in financial sector regulation we haveincluded all the prudential depository intuition regulators in ourscope at this time — the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC and NCUA,” hesaid.

Evans added the GAO does not have a timeline for its probe,saying that the agency is still determining the scope of itswork.

“The methodology we employ and Congressional needs are amongthose factors that ultimately determine when we report out,” hesaid.

Asked about the investigation, NCUA Public Affairs SpecialistJohn Fairbanks said, “We look forward to working with GAO on itsreview.”