Overview
Financial Services Regulation Deskbook covers the significant changes made to the regulation of financial services institutions by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and subsequent implementing regulations. It is organized by subject matter and provides commentary on the practical effects of the legislation on industry practice, including identifying areas of legal ambiguity that must be solved only by advocacy with the relevant regulators.
Topics include the Dodd-Frank Act’s:
- Creation of the Financial Stability Oversight FSOC (Council) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
- Heightened prudential standards for systemically significant financial companies
- Prohibition, subject to exceptions, of banks engaging in proprietary trading and sponsoring and investing in hedge funds and private equity funds
- Requirement that U.S. banks and other entities that receive federal “financial assistance” to push-out much of their derivatives businesses to nonbank affiliates
- Creation of an “Orderly Liquidation Authority” for systemic financial firms
- Increased prudential regulation on banks and their holding companies
- Comprehensive regulation of derivatives activities
Written by Arthur S. Long, a partner at Latham & Watkins, Financial Services Regulation Deskbook explains the context surrounding Dodd-Frank, including its legislative history, the specific issues during the economic crisis period that many of the changes were meant to address, as well as the impact of the steady flow of implementing regulations that have been issued since the Act went into effect.