For all its highly touted reforms, the financial overhaul enacted in Washington won't stop big banks from getting bigger, and that spells trouble for smaller banks as well as consumers, experts say.

The growth of "megabanks" in Florida was highlighted recently when the Wall Street Journal surveyed a stretch of Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando. There, the "Big Three" -- Wells Fargo, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase -- increasingly dominate the city's main banking corridor.

Nationally, BofA, Chase and Wells now have 33 percent of all U.S. deposits, up from 21 percent in mid-2007, the fastest shift of such a large chunk of deposits in U.S. history, the Journal reported.

Additionally, the Big Three made 57 percent of all home mortgages in the first quarter, up from 28 percent in 2008, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry newsletter.

And, as proof that they are "too big to fail," the federal government fronted this trio $95 billion in capital in 2008 and 2009, all of which they repaid.

"It is true that megabanks are now bigger and more powerful than before. The new financial reform legislation will not do anything to reverse that, and might even make it worse because the legislation does little to limit the largest banks' activities while still giving them a special status as systemically important institutions," says Gerald Epstein, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"(This) will most likely mean that the government will continue to be largely in the position of having to bail them out in a crisis ... this will continue to allow them to borrow at cheaper rates than smaller banks and will thereby give them a growth advantage, just reinforcing their size and the concentration in the system," said Epstein, who is also co-director of MIT's Political Economy Research Institute.

The new federal law attempts to tighten current regulations. Rules that limit U.S. banks holding 10 percent of all U.S. deposits from buying up rivals have been expanded to included liabilities, as well.

Critics say that's like locking the barn after the horses are gone. Through previously approved acquisitions, BofA (which bought out Countrywide Financial Corp.), Chase (Washington Mutual) and Wells (Wachovia) can squeeze the rest of the field.

The situation has consumer groups pushing for stricter bans on big-bank consolidations. Many favor House Resolution 5159 by U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., which aims to close the growth-by-acquisition "loophole" in the 10 percent standard.

"I'm concerned that big banks are gaining power and that the laws aren't good enough to limit size," said Ed Mierzwinski, of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Mierzwinski says his studies show that bigger banks charge bigger fees -- and use their broad market reach to get away with it.

"Because of the stickiness of account relationships, they are able to retain customers, they can have worse service and lower deposit interest. We need to make sure consumers have the right to shop around," he said.

To help depositors "untether" themselves from badly behaving banks, Mierzwinski and other consumer-interest advocates want to let customers "fire their banks" without getting hit with cancellation fees. These groups also want to establish user-friendly databases to help the public compare services, rates, charges and benefits.