Two years ago this week, the largest financial reform package in U.S. history became law: the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis under a highly partisan vote count (just three Republicans voted yay in the House of Representatives), the doorstopper law prescribes regulations on everything from derivatives and conflict minerals to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
To date, about 30 percent of Dodd-Frank rulemaking requirements have been metgenerating a wealth of lobbying, commentary, and controversy along the way. Bookending sentiments on the law, President Barack Obama has called for even tougher reform in the future, while his Republican rival Governor Mitt Romney has vowed to get the act repealed.
Below is a roundup of whats being said by those in the know about Dodd-Frank on its two-year anniversary:
The Namesakes
Former Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut), now chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, told the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners last month that he doesnt actually like having his name on the bill, according to Accounting Today: Its not that I dont want to have my name associated with it. I just think it personalizes these matters in a manner Im not enamored of.
That aside, Dodd also said that the laws controversial whistleblower provisions produce tips to the Securities and Exchange Commission that are yielding significant benefits in developing enforcement cases. Though he does fear the provisions will lack for funding in the future: Those who dont like regulations, those who dont like the law, will basically starve it of funding.
Speaking of money, Dodd-Franks other half, Representative Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), told New York magazine earlier this year: The biggest thing I would have changed was how you paid for itthat $20 billion thats now on the taxpayers, not the banks. But we needed those Republican votes.
