Subscribe to the Finance Headline RSS feed | Subscribe to the Finance Headline feed via EmailBNA INSIGHTS: Calls to Extend Deadline for Completion of Dodd-Frank Rulemakings Raise Serious Issues
February 7, 2011 in Alternative Investment Law Report · Leave a Comment
By Charles R. Mills
When Shakespeare wrote “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date,” he wasn’t clairvoyantly anticipating the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”), but the derivatives industry might think he has a point when the subject is the summer of 2011. That is the date (July 2011) when the vast majority of Dodd-Frank provisions become effective and hence the statutory deadline for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the Federal Reserve Board (“Fed”) and other agencies to complete the scores of rulemakings required to implement the new regulatory scheme for over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives markets.
Notwithstanding the ongoing Herculean efforts of the CFTC, the SEC and the Fed to meet the deadline – with their Chairpersons, Commissioners, Governors and devoted and astute staffs working incredibly late nights, holidays and weekends to meet it – the chorus of serious and principled interested parties advocating that the agencies be given more time grows larger all the time.
The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation (“CCMR”), which is composed of leaders in business, law and academia, is but one example. It recently has urged Congress to hold hearings on this very issue out of concern that the “current rulemaking process is sacrificing quality and fairness for apparent speed, risking lengthy court challenges and poor rules that will damage our financial system and hinder economic recovery.”
