Representatives of the banking industry generally applauded the report and said they hoped it would spur action.

“We urge regulators and Congress to take up these recommendations expeditiously, and to consider additional changes so banks can continue to play their important role in accelerating economic growth,” Rob Nichols, president of the American Bankers Association, said in a statement.

It is not clear how quickly regulators can act on many of the recommendations in the Treasury’s 150-page report.

Key positions at the Federal Reserve, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are either unfilled or held by Obama appointees. Also, the byzantine process for approving regulations doesn’t lend itself to quick fixes. Rules must be written, offered for public comment for several months and then deliberated internally before a final vote.

Unpopular Regulations

Some of the most unpopular regulations that the report asks to re-do, such as the Volcker Rule ban on banks’ proprietary trading, were put together by five different agencies. Each one would need to sign off on revisions following those onerous steps.

Much of the report covers complex areas like how much of a capital cushion lenders should have or how to calculate the amount of leverage a bank takes on. The Treasury is also highly critical of international capital standards that the largest banks are required to follow.

On the Volcker Rule, Treasury outlined several ways that regulators and Congress should consider weakening it. Banks with less than $10 billion in assets should be exempted altogether, the report argued. It also said all lenders should have more leeway to trade and that restrictions on banks’ investing in private-equity and hedge funds should be loosened.

The review takes particular issue with the CFPB, a centerpiece of the Dodd-Frank law, calling the agency “unaccountable” with “unduly broad regulatory powers.” To rein in the bureau, the Treasury report calls for the president to be able to fire its director for any reason, not just for cause as is now the case. It also recommends the agency to be funded annually by Congress instead of being able to set its own budget.

To “curb excesses and abuses in investigations and enforcement actions,” the report said the CFPB should make a number of changes to how it probes wrongdoing, including bringing cases in federal courts rather than administratively.