Backing away from the proposal he offered four months ago, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the bill he intended to debut today was an attempt at consensus that incorporates Democratic and GOP ideas, even though no Republicans have lent their support.

The legislation, a priority for President Obama, aims to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis that caused the Wall Street meltdown 18 months ago.

Dodd would not discuss specifics of his plan, but he acknowledged that his views on a single regulator had changed and that he also saw merit in not giving a consumer agency complete autonomy in writing regulations.

Those familiar with the plan described it on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The details, they said, remained in flux.

Dodd wants to create a special council that would watch over the financial markets, looking for trouble spots that could threaten the economy. The council would have an independent chairman appointed by the president.

The Fed, which would have lost all its regulatory powers under Dodd's initial plan, would emerge with fewer banks to supervise, but with new muscle over the biggest banking and nonbanking financial institutions in the country.

The central bank, faulted for not seeing the recent crisis, would oversee all bank-holding companies with assets of more than $50 billion - about 50 institutions in all. That is more than Dodd had considered as early as last week.

Dodd's other significant shift is on consumer protections, after initially adopting Obama's plan for a separate agency. The new bill would create a division within the Fed that would have the power to write regulations governing a range of consumer financial transactions, from mortgages to payday loans to credit cards.

Those rules could be vetoed by a two-thirds vote of the council. The consumer agency would not have enforcement powers; other regulators would police the various parts of the financial industry.