The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will help prevent the risky financial practices that led to the financial meltdown and stop large financial firms from gambling with Americans’ retirement and college savings and home values. It ends taxpayer bailouts of big banks, creates a consumer financial protection bureau that finally puts consumers first, and ends the era of abuses by "too big to fail" banks that have cost the American people 8 million jobs and $17 trillion in retirement savings and net worth.

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will help prevent the risky financial practices that led to the financial meltdown and stop large financial firms from gambling with Americans’ retirement and college savings and home values. In addition, taxpayers will no longer pay the price for Wall Street’s irresponsibility. The bill creates a process to shut down large, failing firms whose collapse would put the entire economy at risk. After exhausting all of the company’s assets, additional costs would be covered by a “dissolution fund,” to which all large financial firms would contribute.

The bill will create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a new consumer watchdog devoted to protecting Americans from unfair and abusive financial practices. This independent bureau will provide clear and accurate information to families and small businesses to ensure that bank loans, mortgages, and credit cards are fair and affordable. Just like the FDA does for medical safety, the CFPB will set safety standards to prevent practices such as hidden credit card fees, deceptive “fine print,” and other financial abuses that have escaped oversight so far.