After the failure of one effort to overhaul a major part of the mutual fund industry, top government officials worked on Thursday to find alternative ways to rein in what they see as a systemic threat to the financial system.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and other top regulators were given sweeping powers after the 2008 financial crisis that would allow them to force new rules on money market funds, a popular type of mutual fund that has taken some of the blame for the crisis. On Wednesday evening, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary L. Schapiro, announced unexpectedly that she was calling off her agency’s long-running effort to change rules for money funds.

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Dennis Kelleher, the president of Better Markets, a lobbying group that has supported reforms, doubts the resolve of many regulators to follow through on their push for change. He says he thinks the odds of the council taking strong action “are close to zero.”

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Read Peter Eavis  and Nathaniel Popper’s full NYT article here