U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a Senate panel Tuesday he sees the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve as having key roles in reforming executive pay in the financial system.

Speaking at a hearing on the Treasury Department's budget, Geithner said the SEC has some important obligations in the area of compensation and it might seek new authorities. Additionally, he noted that the Fed is already in the midst of considering new compensation guidelines.

"Those are two ways we can have influence," Geithner told the panel.

He added that the Obama administration will include its thoughts on compensation in the broader financial regulatory overhaul plan it intends to release next week.

Geithner added, in response to senators' questions, that the administration isn't planning to put just one agency in charge of monitoring systemic risks to the financial system. While the administration will propose streamlining the financial regulatory system, "we're not going to propose to concentrate all authority for systemic issues in only one place - too complicated, really, to do that," he said.

He also added that the administration isn't expecting to lay out concrete recommendations related to the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) in its proposal next week. Addressing the future of the GSEs is very important to the administration, he said, but the White House plans to defer recommendations on that front for a bit longer. "It's just a little early .... We want to do this carefully," he said.

Turning back to the executive-pay issues that will be addressed in the regulatory reform proposal, Geithner said it is time the financial industry adheres to new guidelines.

"We need to help encourage substantial reforms in compensation reforms," he said. "I think boards of directors did not do a good job. I think shareholders did not do a good job."

Geithner said compensation should be tied to better measures of long-term investment and they shouldn't incentivize excessive risk-taking.

Meanwhile, Geithner told lawmakers that, despite the Obama administration's recently-launched programs to boost the housing market, he still sees a challenging road ahead for homeowners.

While he admitted that the federal government was slow to address the housing crisis, he said the Obama administration has provided some very powerful incentives that should help homeowners refinance their mortgages or modify their loans so that they are more affordable.

Still, it might not be until this autumn before the government can give a sufficient progress report on its housing initiatives.

"We are at the very early stage of implementing that program," Geithner told the Senate appropriations panel, adding that he expects eventually to see a very substantial acceleration of the pace of home-loan modifications.

Defending the administration's housing efforts, he also noted that the Treasury Department's new housing programs, together with the Federal Reserve's programs, have successfully brought down mortgage rates.

Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., however, said he still remains skeptical that the administration's efforts will work. The administration needs to make it mandatory that banks participate in its housing initiatives, Durbin said.

-By Maya Jackson Randall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9255, maya.jackson-randall@dowjones.com