Dodd-Frank Rulemaking Era Coming to a Close

By Andrew K. Sledd, Business Assurance & Advisory Services Audit Senior Manager | Financial Services Industry Team

It has been almost four and half years since President Obama signed The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Bill”) into federal law. As we approach 2015, there are only a handful of proposals yet to be implemented from the almost 100 rules the Bill set out to issue, according to SEC officials from the Corporate Finance Division.

The Bill was originally passed in response to the Great Recession and brought into law the most significant regulation bill of financial institutions since the Securities’ Acts of the 1930’s. The Bill has received criticism from all sides with some arguing the Bill does not do enough to protect investors from another Great Recession and others argue the Bill has gone too far in unduly regulating financial institutions.

The Bill passed with 16 provisions or titles that ranged from financial stability and crowdfunding to increased regulations over investment advisers and broker/dealers in securities. The major rules implemented in detail can be found on the SEC website.

The remaining rules to be implemented primarily consist of proposals on executive compensation and certain disclosures that could be required of publicly traded companies to disclose the median pay of all employees compared to the pay of the CEO, the Pay Ratio Disclosure. The SEC has also issued final proposals relating to requiring disclosure of certain clawback plans of executive compensation if accounting restatements are made and general information on employee bonus policies.

It will take years to come to determine if the Bill has the impact the lawmakers intended but for now the Bill has accomplished what it sought out to do, increase protections for investors and implement more stringent regulations of financial institutions.

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