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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

There was reaction from all sides today to the Senate's passage of a new financial regulation bill. It's another step aimed at making U.S. financial markets safer for consumers and avoiding a repeat of the recent financial meltdown.

Senator Christopher Dodd, who guided the bill through the Senate, said it's a strong bill for investors and consumers.

Senator CHRISTOPHER DODD (Democrat, Connecticut): We give this country, once again, a sense of confidence and optimism about the financial institutions and the financial structures of our country.

SIEGEL: The House and Senate will now work out the differences in their bills in a conference likely to take several weeks.

NPR's John Ydstie reports on other reaction to the legislation and the issues left to be resolved.

YDSTIE: The scope of this legislation, more than 1,500 pages long, is vast. It attempts to end the problem of too-big-to-fail by forcing financial institutions to hold more capital as a cushion against failure.

It outlines a process for taking over and shutting down giant financial institutions that are failing. It forces the trading of derivatives, those controversial financial instruments at the center of the economic meltdown out of largely unregulated markets on the public exchanges. And it creates an independent consumer financial protection bureau to shield consumers from fraudulent and dangerous financial products.

Doug Elliott, a former investment banker, now a fellow at the Brookings Institution, thinks it's a significant achievement.

Mr. DOUG ELLIOTT (Fellow, Brookings Institution): I'm pretty pleased with it. I think this gets us about two-thirds of the way to where we should be. And in the real world, that's a very good result.

YDSTIE: But business and consumer groups had diametrically opposed responses to the Senate bill.

Mr. ED MIERZWINSKI (Consumer Program Director, U.S. Public Interest Research Group): There is no question that the Wall Street reform bill is stronger than anyone expected it to be.

YDSTIE: That's consumer advocate Ed Mierzwinski of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Mr. MIERZWINSKI: It's got a very strong consumer protection agency, even though the banks and the chamber of Commerce spent millions of dollars trying to kill it - they lost.

YDSTIE: Not surprisingly, a number of business advocacy groups see it differently. David Hirshman is with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. DAVID HIRSCHMANN (Senior Vice President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce): We're concerned about the overly broad, ill-defined consumer financial protection regulator. The powers are still ill-defined and there are no checks and balances on the new regulator.

YDSTIE: The chamber and others who want to make changes in the legislation still have one more chance in the House-Senate conference committee that will iron out the differences in the bills passed by the two bodies. But since both versions contain a consumer protection entity, those against it will only be able to make marginal changes.

One controversial issue that will have to be resolved is the exemption from oversight the auto dealers won in the House bill. The Senate bill doesn't give an exemption. Mierzwinski says auto dealers will fight hard to keep it.

Mr. MIERZWINSKI: They make billions of dollars on unfair practices. They hurt all kinds of consumers with those practices, including military families. That's our - we're giving it our best shot and it's going to be close.

YDSTIE: Though a lot of business groups say they are very disappointed with the legislation that has emerged, the Financial Services Forum, which represents CEOs of some of the nation's largest financial institutions, is more positive. John Dearie is the group's executive vice president.

Mr. JOHN DEARIE (Executive Vice President, Financial Services Forum): Overall, I think that there is a general satisfaction with the reform, although there are still things that our membership is hoping might be made better in the conference.

YDSTIE: One is the Senate bill's ban on the bank's trading of derivatives. The banks are likely to win that battle. That's because top financial regulators and the White House agree banks need to be able to trade derivatives to hedge risks.

John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.