WASHINGTON — The Obama administration sent Congress legislation today to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency designed to protect Americans from unscrupulous practices and make financial products easier to understand.

The 152-page draft bill would create a five-member board to run the agency with four members nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The fifth member would be the director of the new National Bank Supervisor, the merged agency the administration is proposing to create to take over bank regulation duties.

The consumer agency is part of what would be the most comprehensive rewrite of the government's financial rules since the 1930s.

The administration said it would ensure consumers are provided with simple, transparent and accurate information on financial products like credit cards and mortgages.

"Those ridiculous contracts with pages of fine print that no one can figure out — those things will be a thing of the past," Obama said in a statement. "And enforcement will be the rule, not the exception."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the new agency's one mission would be to protect consumers. He said the new agency would have "the authority and accountability to make sure that consumer protection regulations are written fairly and enforced vigorously."

In a fact sheet, the administration said the new agency would ensure financial products include clear information to allow consumers to understand what they are getting when they sign up for a new credit card, take out a mortgage or use other types of financial products.