Interviews

Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has served in the Senate since 1980 and is currently chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Eakes is the co-founder and CEO of the Self-Help Credit Union in North Carolina, an organization that caters to individuals and families underserved by traditional financial institutions. He is also the CEO of the Center for Responsible Lending, a research and policy organization with the goal of stopping predatory lending practices.

She is a senior counsel and vice president of the American Bankers Association. The ABA is lobbying organization in Washington D.C. that, according to its official Web site, represents "banks of all sizes and charters" and "over 95 percent of the industry's $13.3 trillion in assets."

As secretary of the Treasury, he is President Obama's top economic adviser. Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003-2009 and served in the Department of the Treasury during three administrations, most notably as undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs under President Clinton.

Lake has been in the payday lending business for 20 years and is currently the CEO of California Check Cashing. The company has over 100 locations in Northern California and provides payday loans, check cashing and wire transfers, among other services.

He is the former chairman and CEO of Providian Financial, a very successful bank whose name became synonymous with the tricks and traps that have entangled credit card customers.

A Texas banking consultant, Strunk popularized the idea of free checking accounts and allowing customers to overdraw them -- and when they do, they're charged a fee. When banks started attaching debit cards to those free checking accounts, profits from overdraft fees soared.