Democratic senator Chris Dodd unveiled a bill today that is 1,136 pages long and proposes several sweeping changes in the financial regulatory system. The bill would include adding a consolidated bank regulator, which would combine all federal bank overseers. Dodd believes this would stop banks from searching for a regulator with the lowest standards and keep an even playing field for the entire industry. In addition to this the Dodd bill would remove the Federal Reserve’s oversight responsibility. In the bill the words are “The Federal Reserve will focus on monetary policy without being distracted by responsibilities for bank oversight and consumer protection.” The third important addition this bill would bring is a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The agency would write rules for mortgage and credit-card products that would be offered to consumers.

The bill is definitely going to have some strong opposition from republicans and probably even some moderate democrats in the senate. The creation of a consolidated bank regulator may be the most controversial part of this bill, while the Consumer Financial Protection Agency seems to be the most popular part of the bill because it should help keep the credit rating agencies honest.

One has to wonder if anyone will ever actually read the entire 1,136 pages of this bill? Sure seems like a whole lot of reading for one bill. I think that the debate over moving forward with financial regulation that tried to help us avoid something like the credit crisis of last year is a positive one, but all steps should be taken to not overstep boundaries or block a group like the Federal Reserve from being able to make necessary moves to help consumers. What is clear is that the current financial regulatory system isn’t working. The part that isn’t clear just yet is exactly what the solution should be.