Last May, while still on the campaign trail, Donald Trump told Reuters that he would “dismantle” the Dodd-Frank legislation. This concerns us greatly. The full name of this huge piece of legislation, the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” reveals exactly why we need it: it regulates the big banks, and it protects consumers.

Dodd-Frank is a massive piece of legislation passed by the Obama administration in 2010. It came about as a result of the financial crisis of 2008, which of course started because of shady lending practices and other irresponsible actions of the banks. The financial crisis resulted in millions of Americans losing their homes to foreclosure (not to mention the bail-outs of the banks, funded by American taxpayers), and its after-effects are still very much with us.

As the financial crisis was unfolding, the Obama government realized that they needed to have much tighter regulation over the financial industry, to avoid anything like this ever happening again.

The basis for the Dodd-Frank legislation was first proposed in mid-2009. Its name comes from the names of the two men, former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and then Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, who worked on revising it before introducing it to the House of Representatives. The resulting legislation was passed, and took effect in July, 2010.

The full scope of Dodd-Frank is huge and complicated — in total, over 2300 pages in length. Its stated aim is:

“To promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end “too big to fail”, to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes.”

Dodd-Frank is divided into sixteen “Titles” (or topic areas) which do everything from regulating how banks operate and how much they pay their executives, to how much cash they must keep on hand as reserves, to requiring more transparency and accountability in Wall Street transactions. However, the part of the Dodd-Frank legislation that concerns me the most right now is what is known as Title Fourteen : The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act.

Title Fourteen is administered by the Bureau for Consumer Financial Protection (which was created as Title Ten of Dodd-Frank, and regulates financial products such as credit cards and retirement investments). We now know that the subprime mortgage market and predatory mortgage lending were the main causes of the 2008 financial crisis. Title Fourteen was created to make sure that this never happens again. Here’s how:

Subtitle A regulates how your mortgage originator gets paid. A residential mortgage originator is the person who helps you obtain your loan or negotiate terms for your loan. Title Fourteen forbids them from being paid based upon the term of your loan or your interest rate or other terms from the loans. In other words, it takes away any financial incentive for them to work against your best interests.

Subtitle B establishes national standards for determining that you, the borrower, have the means to repay the loan. It also makes sure that second mortgages and other loans are taken into account when determining ability to repay. Much of our financial meltdown took place because banks were giving out mortgages that borrowers could not afford to repay — so of course the borrowers got into trouble! This will prevent that from happening again.

Subtitle C regulates how high-cost mortgages (in other words, high-interest mortgages such as second mortgages and HELOCs that are secured by the borrower’s principal residence) are negotiated. This includes requiring the consumer to take pre-loan counseling before signing on the dotted line, and disallowing Balloon Payments and prepayment penalties. It makes sure that consumers are fully informed about what they are agreeing to.

Subtitle D creates a new Office of Housing Counseling, within the department of Housing and Urban Development. This office works with the media to help educate the public about home ownership and mortgages.

Subtitle E creates rules for how lenders interact with and inform people who are having trouble repaying their mortgages regarding escrow and settlement procedures. It makes sure that important information is fully disclosed.

Subtitle F prohibits lenders from extending credit for high-risk mortgages unless they obtain a current, written appraisal of the home. It also outlines how that appraisal is to be done and who is qualified to undertake it. It makes sure that borrowers who take out riskier mortgages have better protection.

Subtitle G helps protect tenants by making sure that the property owner is not at risk of foreclosure, by helping the owner with suitable financing and making sure they have funds for property rehabilitation if necessary. It keeps tenants from becoming unwitting victims of foreclosure.

Subtitle H provides for some “miscellaneous” provisions not mention above, such as cracking down on foreclosure prevention scams and loan modification fraud, and providing legal assistance to low- and moderate-income homeowners who are facing foreclosure.

As I’ve said, Dodd-Frank is a huge piece of legislation. I’ve only summarized a very small part of it here. But hopefully you can see why it is so important, and why it should stay. Dodd-Frank is all about regulating the big banks and mortgage lenders and protecting ordinary people: homeowners, as well as those who aspire to own their own home some day.

We appeal to the incoming administration: Look out for the people, not the big banks. Protect us, protect our economy. Leave Dodd-Frank in place.