The contest to characterize the Consumer Financial Protection Agency off the Hill has been just as fierce as negotiations in committee.

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told NationalJournal.com in an interview on Friday that the financial reforms bill he helped devise has been tarnished by a "great deal of misinformation," in particular by ads from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Since financial reform first gained momentum in the House last year, the U.S Chamber of Commerce has spent millions of dollars on print and television advertisements that characterize the CFPA, a proposed agency to protect consumers from predatory lenders, as a tourniquet on the flow of credit to families and small business.

In a recent spot, a couple tosses and turns in bed, worried about "mounting bills" that will be made worse by a "massive new federal agency that will create new layers of regulation and bureaucracy." And in a print advertisement from last fall, the chamber warned that such an agency would hurt small businesses that extend credit to customers. (President Obama singled out the ad at the time, calling its claims "completely false.")

The chamber declined a request for comment on the impact of the CFPA on retail merchants. But Frank insists that small businesses would not be targeted. "You are only covered if you are arranging loans," he said. "If someone sells you something in the store, you're not covered by [the CFPA], even if they say you can buy this on store credit."

According to Frank, "heavy lobbying from the financial institutions" threatens to derail financial reform negotiations in the upper chamber. Wall Street has mounted an aggressive campaign to discourage Republican lawmakers from cooperating with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn.