Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual report on financial services regulations entitled “Dodd-Frank Regulations: Regulators’ Analytical and Coordination Efforts.”

According to this report, federal financial regulators— Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, National Credit Union Administration, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission—have continued to conduct required regulatory analyses for rules issued pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank).

This GAO report examines: (1) the regulatory analyses federal financial regulators conducting in Dodd-Frank rulemakings; (2) interagency coordination on rulemakings by federal financial regulators; and (3) the impact of selected Dodd-Frank provisions and related rules.

In addition to reviewing 54 Dodd-Frank rules that became effective between July 23, 2013 and July 22, 2014 to determine if required regulatory analyses and coordination were conducted, in this report GAO also assessed which rules it considered to be major rules and the possible impact of selected Dodd-Frank provisions and their implementing regulations on the financial marketplace.

According to GAO, 38 of the 54 rules examined were substantive, meaning they were generally subject to public notice and comment under the Administrative Procedure Act and therefore required some form of regulatory analysis. These rules were issued individually or jointly by the financial regulators, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Of the 38 rules identified as substantive, the Office of Management and Budget identified 15 as major rules under the Congressional Review Act. Specifically, the Federal Reserve issued one major rule; FDIC issued one major rule; CFPB issued three major rules; CFTC issued four major rules; SEC issued three major rules; the Federal Reserve and OCC jointly issued one major rule; CFTC, the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC, and SEC jointly issued one major rule; and FDIC, the Federal Reserve, OCC, and SEC jointly issued one major rule

Troutman Sanders LLP has extensive experience in compliance, regulatory enforcement and litigation involving Dodd-Frank and other financial services regulations. We will continue to monitor this and other similar developments.