Despite Trimming Its Rulemaking Goals, SEC Still Misses Deadlines for Wall Street Reform

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Chair Mary Jo White has failed to meet many of its own deadlines for implementing the Wall Street reform law, a new Public Citizen report finds.

"Lowered Expectations: Even After Trimming Its Agenda, Securities and Exchange Commission Misses Its Marks on Public Safeguards" shows that the SEC has met deadlines in only three of the 25 rules it said it would propose or finalize by October.

"Chair White pledged to get the rules 'done,'" noted report author Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate for Public Citizen's Congress Watch division. "Instead, she has reduced the number of rules for commission consideration and then largely not considered them."

Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division said, "Reckless bankers crashed the economy six years ago and Congress approved reform more than four years ago, yet the SEC has still failed to create many of the guardrails needed to prevent another calamity.

"We urge it to move the ball on these critical rules so the agency can turn to other important investor needs, including new needed rulemaking around political spending disclosure by public companies."

The SEC has completed 60 percent of the rules in its jurisdiction to implement the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That compares with 80 percent completed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a sister agency. At its current pace, the SEC will not complete its statutorily mandated rules until 2020.

Public Citizen analyzed the regulatory agendas of the SEC, which are required of all federal agencies and are submitted to the Office of Management and Budget. This lists expected dates for action, including the issuance of proposed rules and finalizing of rules already proposed.

The SEC has completed five rules in 2014. In three cases, however, the commission acted after its announced deadline. In a fourth case, the rule didn't appear on the agency's agenda. In a fifth case, the agency completed a rule ahead of a 2015 deadline.

Read the report.