FRSGlobal

"International Regulatory Reporting" series :
Overview of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (a.k.a. the Dodd Bill)

“This bill doesn't just look through the rear-view mirror to address the failures that caused the economic crisis. It looks through the windshield toward a safer, stronger and more prosperous American economy.” - Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, April 2010.

‘A historic landmark’, ‘a sea change’, ‘a complete overhaul’, are just a few of the labels that have been attributed to the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, also known as the Dodd Bill which passed the Senate on May 20^th. The bill was introduced to create a sound economic foundation to grow jobs, to “rein in” Wall Street, and above all - to prevent another financial crisis. Currently, reconciliation conferences are taking place between the house and the senate to clear outstanding disagreements around details of the bill. The disagreements do not seem to be insurmountable and the presidential signature is expected as early as July 4^th.

Despite the few open points which are being disputed, changes can be expected to be made to the following: Consumer Protection, Too Big to Fail, Systemic Risk, Transparency and Accountability for Exotic Instruments, Federal Bank Supervision, Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance, Credit Rating Agencies and Strengthened Enforcement of Existing Regulations.

In order to provide a deeper understanding into what we can expect once the bill has been passed, FRSGlobal’s Senior Risk Advisor, Dr. Willi Brammertz, presented a webinar on this topic which looked into the following:

• The origins of the bill
• An overview of the council proposed to oversee financial markets - the National Institute of Finance (NIF) and the Office of Financial Research (OFR)
• A closer look at the “early warning system”
• The concept of data gathering and the analytics involved
• Expected changes for banks, regulators consumers and compliance providers