Factbox: 20 ways House and Senate financial reforms differ

(Reuters) - Bipartisan compromise talks resumed in the Senate on Thursday over financial regulation reform, after an impasse led last week to a breakdown in negotiations.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Democrat, said he was talking with Republican Senator Bob Corker about drafting a bill that could gain wide support.

Dodd had been talking before with Senator Richard Shelby, the committee's top Republican, but they could not agree.

Senators have been debating a crackdown on bank and capital market oversight for more than a year. The House of Representatives approved a bill in December, adopting many recommendations made by President Barack Obama in mid-2009. All House Republicans voted against the bill.

Here are some of the differences between the House bill and the latest approaches to regulation reform in the Senate:

* CONSUMER PROTECTION. House bill proposes new, fully independent U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) to regulate mortgages, credit cards, other products. Draft bill proposed in November by Dodd also calls for CFPA.

But Dodd bill exempts fewer businesses from CFPA oversight than House bill, and makes state consumer protection laws less vulnerable to federal preemption.

Bank lobbyists and Republicans oppose CFPA. Seeking compromise, Dodd last month discussed with Republicans downgrading CFPA to less than an independent agency, possibly making it a division of the Treasury Department. Dodd-Shelby talks broke down over a compromise along those lines.

* BANK BREAKUP POWER. Both bills empower regulators to order firms to divest businesses that are too risky. Aides say this could include hedge fund and private equity interests like those targeted by so-called 'Volcker rule' proposed in January by President Barack Obama as a late addition to reforms.

House bill says Treasury must approve any order to divest more than $10 billion in assets, while president must rule on any divestiture above $100 billion. These check-offs absent from Dodd bill.

* PROPRIETARY TRADING BAN. House bill says Fed can ban risky firms from proprietary trading. Dodd bill does not.

But Dodd is looking at adding House language to his bill, addressing another aspect of the proposed 'Volcker rule.'

* RESOLUTION FUND. House bill creates $200 billion fund to help pay for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) actions to dismantle insolvent, non-bank financial firms.

Fund gets $150 billion from fees paid by firms with more than $50 billion in assets. Fee threshold for hedge funds is $10 billion. Fund can get $50 billion more if needed from Treasury borrowings.

Dodd bill covers FDIC actions with after-the-fact fees on firms with assets topping $10 billion.

Republicans want to add an intermediary step to bill setting up a special bankruptcy court as the first recourse for troubled firms before they enter the FDIC resolution process.

* BANK SUPERVISION. House bill closes Office of Thrift Supervision and merges it into Comptroller of the Currency.

House bill stops there, preserves Federal Reserve, FDIC roles in supervising banks.

Dodd bill originally created single super-cop for banks called Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration (FIRA), stripping Fed, FDIC of bank supervision job.

Possible compromise in Senate involves OCC-OTC merger, like House bill, and strips FDIC of bank supervision, but preserves FDIC's present role and gives its some former Fed duties.

* SYSTEMIC RISK REGULATION. House bill creates inter-agency council to police systemic risk in economy. It relies heavily on Fed as agent for executing policy.

Dodd bill sets up new agency to do same job, with much smaller role for Fed.

* HIGHER STANDARDS. Dodd bill imposes incrementally tighter standards on firms with total assets above $10 billion as they present more risk to financial stability. House bill focuses tighter standards on large, "systemically important" firms.

* STRESS TESTS. House bill calls for making firms subjected to stricter standards undergo regular "stress tests," with summary of results released publicly. Dodd bill does not.

* FED MONETARY POLICY. House bill subjects Fed monetary policy for first time to new scrutiny by congressional watchdog. Dodd bill does not.

* FED LENDING POWER. Both bills impose new limits on Fed 13(3) emergency lending authority. House bill puts specific $4 trillion cap on it, imposes check-offs by other authorities. Dodd bill does not.

* SECURED CREDITOR HAIRCUT. In House bill, secured creditors in FDIC resolution actions may have up to 10 percent of their claims treated as unsecured claims. Dodd bill does not contain this so-called "haircut" provision.