WASHINGTON - May 21 - Some 850 banks, hedge funds, business groups, and other interests hired 3,000-plus lobbyists and spent at least $1.3 billion to influence financial regulatory reform legislation pending before the Senate, according to the Center for Public Integrity story, “Five Lobbyists for Each Member of Congress on Financial Reforms.”

An examination of lobbying disclosure data for all of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 showed there were five lobbyists for each member of Congress attempting to influence bills aimed at tightening regulation of banks and capital markets. Public outrage over Wall Street's role in the 2007-09 financial meltdown blunted industry attempts to win loopholes in the measure newly passed by the U.S. Senate.

Most of the big players in American business lobbying were active as reform proposals worked their way through the House and Senate. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce deployed 85 lobbyists, including 49 hired from outside lobbying firms. Among financial services groups, the Securities Industry and Financial Market Association dispatched 54 lobbyists, including 37 from outside firms, according to Center data.

Banks and the financial industry spared little expense in lobbying. Citigroup Inc. deployed 38 lobbyists, Moody’s Corp. 13, and Bank of America 11, all dedicated to the financial reform legislation.

The companies and groups that lobbied on financial reform spent a total of $1.3 billion during the five quarters on their overall lobbying efforts, the data showed. The exact dollar amount they devoted to financial regulation reform remains unclear because lobbyists are not required to itemize how much money in a given contract is spent on a specific issue. But if only 10 percent of that spending was targeted at financial regulation bills, lobbyists would have received $133 million.

In this debate, however, public perception of big U.S. banks as free-wheeling gamblers relying on taxpayer-funded safety nets overwhelmed Wall Street’s lobbying, some experts said. Public opinion against Wall Street was galvanized over excessive bailouts, lavish top executive bonus payments, and the Securities and Exchange Commission's fraud lawsuit against Goldman Sachs Group.

“Political backlash overwhelmed lobbying,” said Arthur Wilmarth Jr., a banking law expert at George Washington University. “Earlier this year, there was a sense that we’ve gotten past the worst of it, so let’s not overreact. Now the fact that all of these (European) governments have taken on all this debt, I think people now realize the crisis isn’t over yet and don’t really want the financial industry going back to taking risks.”

Even with Tea Party protests against Wall Street excesses and Democrats’ push to toughen government oversight for big banks, the financial industry managed to score some victories.

Peter Garuccio, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, said the industry’s accomplishments, at least up to now, include preserving Federal Reserve oversight of state member banks and eliminating a proposal for a $50 billion fund to help pay for dismantling large banks considered too big to fail. “Some of the concerns we’ve raised have been addressed, others have not, and others have been partially addressed,” Garuccio said. “It’s still an ongoing process.”

Reform advocates have their own victories to point to in the legislation’s current form. They include the creation of a federal consumer financial protection bureau, fee limits on debit card transactions, and a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve’s role in the financial bailout.

To view a list of banks and other companies that received government bailouts and how many lobbyists they hired to work on financial legislation, an interactive graphic can be embedded for the Web, or click on the following link: