In reaction to the mortgage crisis, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said this morning that the central bank will issue new rules next week to crack down on shady lending practices and protect future homebuyers, MSNBC reported.

This is just one of several steps the Federal Reserve is taking to address the subprime housing collapse and credit crunch, especially after the Fed rescued Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. from collapse in March and offered emergency cash for other U.S. investment banks supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Reuters reported that the Federal Reserve and the SEC have reached an agreement to share information about banks, which will help improve the SEC’s ability to supervise investment banks and give the Fed more oversight of the broader financial market stability.

The Fed may also give financial firms more time to draw emergency loans directly from the central bank.

These measures are a small step until Congress can debate and pass new regulations, which likely won’t happen until 2009.