Banking and Financial Services/Securities, Commodities, and Exchanges: GAO Issues Report on Agencies' Fiscal Resources to Implement Dodd-Frank Regulatory Reform

On July 14, the General Accountability Office issued a report setting forth reporting by 11 regulatory agencies on the fiscal resources they estimated to be available to implement regulatory reform under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. The report noted that the amount of new funding the agencies reported as associated with implementing Dodd-Frank varied significantly across the 11 agencies. "For example, new funding resources related to Dodd-Frank responsibilities during the years 2011–2012 ranged from a low of $0 for [the Federal Trade Commission] to a high of around $329 million for [the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)]." GAO also reported that funding resources to implement Dodd-Frank "accounted for at least 25 percent of the agency’s total budget increase at 9 of the 11 agencies in the most recent year for which data were available. Excluding the three agencies that the Dodd-Frank Act created (CFPB, [the Financial Stability Oversight Council], and [the Office of Financial Research]), the [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] devoted the highest share of total agency resources (25 percent) to implementing the Dodd-Frank provisions. Agencies reported that most of the costs related
to implementing the provisions will be recurring."