Senator Chris Dodd challenges House, Obama by pushing one super bank cop

When it comes to the way the U.S. government regulates the beleaguered financial industry, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut wants to shake things up a bit. For starters, the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is pushing the idea of a new super bank cop called the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration. His plan would involve a complete overhaul of the financial regulatory structure, reducing the power of the Federal Reserve and instead amassing all banking regulatory authority in one place.

Dodd's plan is starkly different than that of the House Committee on Financial Services, which for now is content with the status quo of maintaining banking regulatory agencies and a regulatory council. But with Dodd facing re-election challenges in his home state, bold is the word. This new proposed regulatory authority would have full responsibility for bank supervision, instead of continuing the current practice of having four bank supervisors including the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Savings.