House of Representatives members accused America’s Securities and Exchange Commission of impeding their probe into how the agency failed to uncover the alleged £35bn (€39.2bn) fraud perpetrated by Bernard Madoff.

The United States has been “asleep at the switch” and a financial regulatory upgrade is needed in the wake of Bernard Madoff’s alleged $49.4bn (€34.5bn) fraud scheme and the $692bn (€484bn) Wall Street bailout, president-elect Barack Obama said today.