Instead, Romney may give the financial industry something it wants more: a revamped Dodd-Frank that would accommodate some of the most profitable and riskiest activities while preserving a patina of protection for investors and consumers.

“There's this perception that banks hate everything in Dodd-Frank, and that's just not true,” said Mark Calabria, a former top Republican aide on the Senate Banking Committee. “From a bank's perspective, you'd rather have piecemeal reform of Dodd-Frank, not only because there are things in the law you want to keep, but also because you're going to have more control over the process.”

Congressional Republicans have already laid out the roadmap.