The Government Accountability Office ("GAO") issued a report on efforts by regulatory agencies to analyze and coordinate Dodd-Frank Act rules that became effective between July 2015 and July 2016. The GAO also examined the impact of select Dodd-Frank Act rules on financial market stability.
The GAO concluded that the CFTC and prudential regulators "coordinated domestically and internationally" and "largely harmonized their respective rules" to develop regulations on margin requirements for over-the-counter swaps. The GAO found that the CFPB "followed its internal guidance for coordinating with relevant agencies throughout the rulemaking process" in adopting the integrated mortgage disclosure rule.
The GAO determined that regulators issued final rules for approximately 75% of the 236 provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that the GAO is monitoring. GAO noted that delayed implementation of Dodd-Frank Act requirements by the financial services industry, as well as factors outside of its provisions like monetary policy, can make it difficult to isolate the effect of the Dodd-Frank Act on the financial marketplace. That said, the GAO found that, among other actions, Dodd-Frank Act implementation has had the following effects on the financial services industry:
- large bank systemically important financial institutions have increased in size but have become less vulnerable to financial distress;
- designated nonbanks are more resilient and less interconnected than in prior years; and
- increased percentages of collateral for swaps by banks may help protect against credit loss.
However, the GAO stated that:
"The full impact of the Dodd-Frank Act remains uncertain because some of its rules have not been finalized and insufficient time has passed to evaluate others."
The GAO will continue to monitor the implementation of "prior recommendations intended to improve, among other things, financial regulators' cost-benefit analysis, interagency coordination, and impact analysis associated with Dodd-Frank regulations."
Commentary / Steven Lofchie
There is not much in this report to get excited about. That the regulators are cooperating with respect to rulemaking is generally a good thing, but it does not necessarily say anything about the quality of the rules being adopted. The numbers demonstrating that banks have become more "resilient" are so high-level that they are of no particular value.
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