By Bryan Mena, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The Federal Reserve must be relieved of its duties regulating the nation’s banks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in an essay published Friday.

Bessent wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the central bank has veered away from what he described as its core mission of promoting full employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.

President Donald Trump’s top economic official is doubling down on an idea he has trumpeted for months: The Fed has overstepped its bounds by taking on banking regulation, and that must stop.

“The Fed now regulates, lends to and sets the profitability calculus for the banks it oversees, an unavoidable conflict that blurs accountability and jeopardizes independence,” Bessent wrote. “There must also be an honest, independent, nonpartisan review of the entire institution, including monetary policy, regulation, communications, staffing and research.”

When the Fed was created in its current form in 1913, bank supervision and regulation weren’t part of its core responsibilities. But over time and through crises such as the Great Depression and Great Recession, the Fed was gradually ceded more oversight over the nation’s banks.

Advocates for the Fed argue that the soundness of the banking system is interconnected with the country’s financial stability, part of the Fed’s mission as an institution.

Bank supervision and regulation are currently shared among the Fed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

It’s unclear who would conduct a “review” of the Fed and what that would entail. In an August 27 interview with Fox Business, Bessent said he “encouraged Chair (Jerome) Powell to do this on an internal basis before there is an external review.”

During a bank regulation conference in July at the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, Powell said efficient banking rules “help maintain a safe, sound, and efficient banking system, for the benefit of the people we serve.”

Powell has stated that any changes to the Fed’s functions or its structure — such as its focus on promoting full employment or its ability to regulate banks — is ultimately up to Congress.

Though Powell has been critical of bank supervision and regulation all being under the purview of one member on the Fed’s Board of Governors designated as a vice chair.

“You’ve got a group of seven people on the board, and as appointments change, there’ll be some changes in the approach to regulation,” Powell told lawmakers during a hearing in February. “Putting it all in a single person, admittedly, just to recommend to the board can lead to some volatility … and that’s not great for the institutions we want to regulate.”

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman is currently the person at the central bank with that responsibility. Trump elevated her to that post earlier this year, and she has kicked off a comprehensive review of the capital requirements for the nation’s largest banks.

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This story has been updated with additional content.