S&C's Dodd-Frank Developments is a database to help you stay informed of regulatory updates in a rapidly evolving environment. S&C recently launched a Dodd-Frank calendar feature, a web-based interactive calendar.
What's New:
On July 21, 2010, the President signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Dodd-Frank is intended to address perceived deficiencies and gaps in the regulatory framework for financial services in the United States, reduce the risk of bank failures and better equip the nation’s financial regulatory authorities to guard against or mitigate any future crises. Dodd-Frank implements far-reaching changes across the financial regulatory landscape.
Dodd-Frank defers many of the details of these reforms to future rulemakings by a variety of federal regulatory agencies. As a result, the full impact of Dodd-Frank will not be known until these important rulemakings are completed.
Click here for Sullivan & Cromwell's comprehensive guide to the Dodd-Frank Act. Below are links to information about Dodd-Frank in its entirety, including the related rulemakings and overviews of particular aspects of the legislation.
We will be updating this section on a regular basis with proposed agency regulations, studies, rulemakings, and additional summaries and memoranda as they become available. For information on financial services reform in France, visit S&C’s French Financial Services Reform Resource Center.
Basel III
In response to the financial crisis, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has proposed reforms that would significantly impact capital and liquidity requirements applicable to banking organizations. The proposals originally published in December 2009, together with related subsequent publications and guidance, are generally referred to as Basel III. Read More...
PRINCIPAL DODD-FRANK REFORM AREAS
Summary of Principal Reform Areas
As a general theme, Dodd-Frank imposes more stringent requirements on the largest financial institutions, and, in addition, some new requirements that appear neutral on their face have a relatively greater impact on these institutions. The following introductions to major sections of Dodd-Frank are treated more fully in the S&C memo Summary of Principal Reform Areas. Read More...
Systemic Risk Regulation
Title I of Dodd-Frank establishes a new systemic risk oversight body to identify financial companies and certain financial activities that may pose a threat to U.S. financial stability. Those companies and activities are subject to heightened supervisory and prudential requirements. Read More...
Resolution Authority
Title II of Dodd-Frank establishes a new system for liquidation of systemically important nonbank “financial companies,” including broker-dealers and bank holding companies. It is intended to provide the tools that the U.S. government indicated were lacking at the time of the failure of Lehman Brothers. Read More...
Banking Reforms
Title III abolishes the Office of Thrift Supervision and transfers its responsibilities for the supervision and regulation of federal savings associations to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, state savings associations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and savings and loan holding companies to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The FRB will continue to supervise state member banks and all bank holding companies.
Title VI contains a number of requirements designed to strengthen the federal supervision of depository institutions and their holding companies. It also imposes a three-year moratorium on the grant of federal deposit insurance and, with limited exceptions, approval of a change in control, for industrial banks, credit card banks and trust companies that are exempt under the definition of “bank” in the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 if they are (or would be) controlled by commercial firms. Read More...
Volcker Rule
Section 619 adds a new Section 13 to the BHC Act to implement the recommendations of former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, prohibiting proprietary trading by banking organizations. The Volcker Rule prohibits a “banking entity” from engaging in “proprietary trading” or acquiring or retaining any equity, partnership or other ownership interest in or sponsoring a “hedge fund or a private equity fund.” Read More...
Impact on Hedge and Private Equity Funds
While most of the bill is targeted at the financial services industry, many provisions of the proposed legislation are particularly relevant to the operations and management of hedge funds and private equity funds. Read More...
Derivatives Reforms
Title VII, the “Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act,” gives the CFTC and SEC extensive new authority, and imposes significant rulemaking requirements on the agencies to regulate the over-the-counter derivatives markets, products and market participants. Title VII also contains the “Lincoln push-out provision,” which restricts the derivatives businesses that may be conducted within insured depository institutions. Read More...
Amendments to the Securities Laws and Other Reforms
Dodd-Frank includes a number of amendments to the Securities Act and to the Exchange Act, and will affect numerous related regulations. Read More...
Insurance Reforms
Subtitle A of Title V establishes a Federal Insurance Office within the Treasury Department, with authority extending to all lines of insurance except health insurance, crop insurance and (unless included with life or annuity components) long-term care insurance. Read More...
Consumer and Investor Protection
Title X of Dodd-Frank, also known as the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, creates a new consumer financial services regulator, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, that will assume most of the consumer financial services regulatory responsibilities currently exercised by the federal banking regulators and other agencies, and that will also acquire additional powers created by Dodd-Frank. Read More...
Impact on Non-U.S. Financial Institutions
Dodd-Frank’s focus is on U.S. financial institutions, but many of its provisions significantly affect non-U.S. financial institutions operating in the United States, and potentially apply extraterritorially. Read More...
Other Dodd-Frank Related Topics
Read More...
Resources
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Public Law 111-203)
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Enrolled Version of H.R. 4173)
U.S. Senate Floor Debate on Dodd-Frank Conference Report, July 14, 2010
U.S. House of Representatives Floor Debate on Dodd-Frank Conference Report, June 30, 2010
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Conference Report, June 29, 2010
Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 – Senate Enrolled, May 20, 2010
U.S. Senate Floor Debate on S. 3217, April 22-May 20, 2010
Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 – Senate Introduced, April 15, 2010
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 – House Enrolled, December 11, 2009
U.S. House of Representatives Floor Debate on H.R. 4173, December 9-11, 2009
The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 – House Introduced, December 2, 2009
Financial Stability Plan Web Site
Financial Services Reform Resource Center
S&C’s Financial Services Reform Resource Center provides up-to-date information, news, publications and events relating to the financial services reform legislation. For more information about S&C’s advisory roles in financial services reform and related regulatory and legislative developments, please visit the Financial Institutions section of our web site.
Please contact your regular S&C contacts or any of our Financial Services Reform contacts if you have any questions.