Loose restrictions and a lack of transparency and oversight have allowed financial institutions to engage in reckless practices like buying and packaging sub-prime mortgage backed securities.

Americans can't stand by as the financial sector takes excessive risks with retirees savings and is backed by bailouts with taxpayers hard-earned dollars.

The American banking and financial services system lacks basic rules to guide the marketplace, transparency, and accountability. In 2008, this created a financial crisis that brought the world economy to the brink of collapse.

Millions of Americans have lost their jobs,

We need a financial system that:

• protects consumers against predatory loans and practices;

• provides greater transparency for Wall Street; and

• ends the need for future bailouts by making sure no bank is “too big to fail.”

We need to protect consumers and our economic future with new rules to put a check on irresponsible banking practices and we need to make sure those rules are enforced. We need independent enforcement. No more cozy relationships between regulators and the regulated.