U.S. council moves ahead with picking "systemic" nonbank firms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday that a council tasked with overseeing financial system stability voted to move companies forward in the process of determining which nonbank financial firms are "systemically important."

The Financial Stability Oversight Council will notify the companies that moved along in the process but will not announce the names publicly until the council makes its final decision, a Treasury spokesman said.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law gives the council the power to identify "systemically important financial institutions," or firms whose failure could pose a serious risk to the financial system. Those firms would be subject to tougher oversight and capital standards.

(Reporting By Emily Stephenson; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)