Dodd-Frank Rulemaking Progress Report

This posting, the Davis Polk Dodd-Frank Rulemaking Progress Report, is the first in a new series of Davis Polk presentations that illustrate graphically the progress of the rulemaking work that has been done and is yet to occur under the Dodd-Frank Act. The Progress Report has been prepared by our technology team, led by associate Gabe Rosenberg, as our first empirical data-mining exercise using the Davis Polk Regulatory Tracker™, an online subscription service offered by Davis Polk to help market participants understand the Dodd-Frank Act and follow regulatory developments on a real-time basis.

The key message of this first Progress Report is that, while regulators have been working at a frenetic pace, there is a monumental amount of work that remains to be done to write the regulations required by the Dodd-Frank Act. As of the end of March, only 5.4% of the rules required by Dodd-Frank have been finalized. An enormous number of rules will need to be finalized shortly – 27.5% of the required rulemakings are due in the third quarter of 2011, most of which relate to OTC derivatives regulation. We believe many agencies will have no choice but to miss deadlines in an increasing number of instances. It is also interesting to note that many rulemakings (29.0%) have no specific deadline and that many of the CFPB deadlines fall into that category. Another clear message is that the banking regulators have barely begun as their deadlines are generally later or more spread out than those of the CFTC and SEC. Thus, the blistering pace of rulemaking proposals will soon be added to by the FDIC, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as the rulemaking deadlines for these banking regulators draw closer.

The complete report is available here.