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A Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate would be a case of back to the future for the Banking Committee, where Richard Shelby is in line to assume the helm.

Shelby, 80, who was chairman of the panel in the years leading up to the financial crisis when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, would be seizing the gavel again in an environment reshaped by laws that he opposed.

Hed have to focus on issues with bipartisan support, current and former congressional aides say. Those include seeking to eliminate the directors job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and requiring more disclosure by the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Both panels were created over his objections as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

What Shelby wont do, they say, is pull bill after bill from the stack of 23 measures languishing since passing the Republican-run House that would unravel the stricter banking rules. Those would have little chance of passing a closely divided Senate or surviving a veto from President Barack Obama.

Im trying to lower peoples expectations on what is realistically possible, said Joseph Engelhard, a former U.S. Treasury official and congressional staff member. Even if Republicans take the Senate, it will likely just be a one- or two-person majority, and any major reform would have to overcome a veto or filibuster, said Engelhard, now senior vice president at Washingtons Capital Alpha Partners LLC.

During his 28 years in the Senate, including a stint as banking chairman from 2003 to 2007, Shelby of Alabama has taken actions that align with Wall Street such as opposing the Dodd-Frank Act four years ago. And since 2009, securities and investment firms as well as commercial banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) have been among his top contributors, donating a total of $1.4 million.

Yet hes capable of surprises.

Shelby, who served as a Democrat before switching parties in 1994, split with Republicans by resisting the repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall provisions that built a firewall between investment and commercial banking. He openly opposed the 2008 Wall Street bailout and has backed an amendment that would shrink the biggest financial firms.

I dont think the banks are getting a steadfast ally but they also are not getting an enemy, said Brandon Barford, a partner at Beacon Policy Advisors, an independent financial policy research firm, and a former aide to Shelby. They are getting someone who, when it fits with his beliefs on that issue, will fight alongside them and oppose them when the opposite is true.

At a September hearing, Shelby questioned why more people at big banks havent been sent to jail for their actions in the run-up to the credit crisis.

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