The bill expands federal banking and securities regulation from its focus on banks and public markets and imposes regulation for the first time on credit derivatives. U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, chair of the Senate Ag Committee, authored the part on the derivatives market.

"I'm proud to have played a major role in this historic legislation that provides accountability and transparency to Wall Street and brings real reform to our nation's financial markets," Lincoln says.

Critics, such a Alabama Republican Richard Shelby said the law creates vast new bureaucracies with "little accountability and seriously, I believe, undermines the competitiveness of the U.S. economy."

Lawrence H. Summers, the president's chief economic adviser, called the law a "framework that has the potential to be as modern as the markets, but its efficacy will certainly depend upon the judgments that regulators make."