Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd has unveiled a proposal to consolidate bank regulators into a single oversight agency. Dodd’s plan would eliminate the four separate bodies that oversee the nation’s more than 8,000 banks and create a new consumer protection watchdog. Speaking in Washington, Dodd said the measure would address the regulator gaps that led to the nation’s financial collapse.

Sen. Christopher Dodd: “Our proposal will replace the myriad government agencies that failed, in my view, to rein in the risky schemes, with a single, accountable federal banking regulator. We will end — for all time, I hope — 'too big to fail.' Those words should only be used again in a historical context. We cannot allow the collapse of a few firms to threaten the entire economy, our own nation, and others around the globe, for that matter.”