A bipartisan group of US lawmakers are looking to rebuild the wall between commercial and investment banking activities by introducing a bill aimed at re-creating the Glass-Steagall Act.

The bill is backed by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren along with Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, and Angus King, a Maine independent.

By creating a 21st century Glass-Steagall Act, the group is hoping to separate traditional banks that offer checking and savings accounts from “riskier financial institutions,” the statement said. This means that companies involved in investment banking, insurance, swaps dealing, hedge funds and private equity, will have five years to separate these units from their retail banking divisions.

McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate, said he’s backing the measure to restore the wall between investment and retail banking because it’s needed to protect taxpayers from excessive risk-taking and restore confidence in the financial system.

Warred added that “banking should be boring” when announcing the move aimed at financial institutions that are deemed “too big to fail”.

“Anyone who wants to take big risks should go to Wall Street and should stay away from the basic banking system,” she said.

Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999, and since then, senators have made several attempts to revive the law or otherwise limit the size of banks, especially in the aftermath of the financial crisis. However, up until now, any such moves have failed to gain enough support to become law.

Warren, who announced plans for the bill at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Dodd-Frank Act implementation, told regulators testifying before the lawmakers that she didn’t expect them to back her right away.

“Based on what the regulators did to Glass-Steagall over the last 30 years, I don’t expect anyone on this panel will jump and endorse the new Glass-Steagall bill. Even so we’re going to keep pushing for it,” she said.

The measure is the latest bipartisan attempt to address concerns that the largest and most complex banks could require government help if they began to falter. While Congress and financial regulators have put in place a host of new rules - including requiring most banks to hold much higher levels of capital to protect against losses - many lawmakers question whether enough has been done.

Since the announcement, several key players on Wall Street, including Citigroup founder Sandy Weill, have backed the idea of splitting up banks or limiting their size. Regulators such as Thomas Hoenig, the FDIC’s vice chairman, and Fed governor Daniel Tarullo, have also said that banks should only offer “core services”.

Yet, several Wall Street banks are now on the defensive in Washington, leading several media reports to suggest that the bill won’t achieve sufficient backing in the current Congress.