Dodd-Frank Financial Rulebook Behind Schedule

The writers of rules underlying the Dodd-Frank financial regulations are having trouble meeting their deadlines, the Wall Street Journal reports. The timetable for new rules is turning fluid as a result, as rule-writers struggle to interpret the mammoth new law they are supposed to begin enforcing this summer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has postponed several self-imposed rules deadlines as they continue to debate how to define certain categories of investors, and what kind of investor behavior constitutes a crime. Similar debates are occurring inside the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

“And the political deadlock in Congress over spending has left the SEC and CFTC operating without budget increases that the agencies have said are essential to carrying out their growing responsibilities under the law,” the Journal reports.

But some Republicans who oppose Dodd-Frank say that freezing agency budgets at 2010 levels might help slow the drive to re-regulate banks. The biggest overhaul of U.S. financial regulation since the Great Depression will require federal agencies to publish more than 100 new rules or studies.