The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining the near-collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds that made bad bets on the mortgage market, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The SEC inquiry is “informal” at this point and has not resulted in any subpoenas or formal document requests, according to this person, who spoke about the matter on condition of anonymity. The probe was reported by BusinessWeek and CNBC on Monday.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox disclosed at a House hearing on Tuesday that the agency has started about a dozen investigations related to complex aggregations of debt known as collateralized debt obligations, in which hedge funds have increasingly invested.

The situation took on urgency last week with the near-collapse of two hedge funds managed by Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns Cos.

Bear Stearns said Tuesday it would provide about $1.6 billion in secured financing to its Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Fund after the fund sold some assets to partially mollify lenders. Bear said it is not providing any financing to the second fund.

The bailout by Bear Stearns is one of the largest such moves since Wall Street’s investment banks bailed out Long-Term Capital Management in 1998 to avoid a collapse of the broader financial markets. (AP)