Dodd-Frank Act
On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a sweeping overhaul of U.S. financial regulations. The law ended three decades of financial deregulation. It expanded the authority of existing regulators, closed gaps in financial regulation and enhanced corporate governance at U.S. public companies.
The Dodd-Frank Act took aim at the reckless behavior on Wall Street that brought global markets to the brink of collapse in 2008. It extended federal oversight to a wider range of financial firms. It brought transparency to the once-shadowy market for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, requiring most trading in these complex instruments to take place on exchanges and to be cleared centrally. It tasked a council of federal regulators with detecting and mitigating systemic risks to the financial system. Dodd-Frank also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency with primary responsibility for regulating consumer protection.
CII, as a leading voice for long-term, patient capital, advocated vigorously for many elements of the Dodd-Frank Act, especially provisions that enhanced corporate governance. CII relied in large part on the July 2009 report of the Investors’ Working Group, entitled "U.S. Financial Regulatory Reform: The Investors' Perspective" (see below), which members endorsed. The Investors’ Working Group was a blue-ribbon panel of experts, convened by CII and the CFA Institute, to elevate investor views in the debate about how to modernize the financial regulatory system.
Resources & Advocacy
View Dodd-Frank Issue Briefs (members only)
U.S. Financial Regulatory Reform: The Investors' Perspective
Correspondence