House Republicans Take Action to Slow Down Implementation of Dodd-Frank

Approximately 50 House Republicans, mostly from the Financial Services Committee, recently sent a letter to Treasury, Federal Reserve, CFTC, SEC, FDIC and OCC expressing their concerns with the 'volume and pace' of rulemakings being put forth under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The letter specified three primary concerns that regulators must address. 1) The average comment period for rules issued within the first three months of the Dodd-Frank Act is just over 30 days, which the letter stated does not allow sufficient time for affected entities to provide thoughtful comments to the issuing agencies. 2) The pace of these regulations, coupled with the reduced comment period, also increases the likelihood for conflicting rules. 3) Time is needed to determine whether the rules will have an impact on a significant number of small entities.

Since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, AFSA has expressed concerns about the short comment periods and the impact on small institutions to members of the House Financial Services Committee. While the letter doesn't carry the force of law, it should slow the pace of regulations considerably.

The letter concludes by asking regulators to respond by March 25 indicating how they will address each of the three concerns, answer several related questions, and indicate if they agreed that a delay in the timeline would help improve implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act.

In related news, the House Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit Subcommittee is holding a hearing at 10am tomorrow on 'Oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau' with testimony from Elizabeth Warren. The hearing will be webcast here.

Read a copy of the letter here.