The Dodd-Frank Act: Financial Analysis

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, was created as a tool of financial reform in the legislative package that was authorized by the Dodd-Frank Act, but the law specifically includes terms that prohibit setting interest rate limits, which is contrary to the 36-percent limit that the CFPB is currently trying to mandate as a universal limit on short-term rates. The specifics of the Dodd-Frank Act, according to the www.dodd-frank-act.us, state that the legislation grants, "NO AUTHORITY TO IMPOSE USURY LIMIT" unless such a limit is first passed through due legal processes.

On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which is commonly referred as the Dodd-Frank Act. This act was passed as a response to the Great Recession in order to prevent potential financial debacle in the future. This regulation has a significant impact on American financial services industry by placing major changes on the financial regulation and agencies since the Great Depression. This paper examines the history and impact of Dodd-Frank Act on American financial services industry.

The housing crisis of the late 2000s rocked the economy and changed the landscape of the real estate business for years to come. Decades of people purchasing houses unfordable houses and properties with lenient loans policies led to a collective housing bubble. When the banking system faltered and the economy wilted, interest rates were raised, mortgages increased, and people lost their jobs amidst the chaos. This all culminated in tens of thousands of American losing their houses to foreclosures and short sales, as they could no longer afford the mortgage payments on their homes. The United States entered a recession and homeownership no longer appeared to be a feasible goal as many questioned whether the country could continue to support a middle-class. Former home owners became renters and in some cases homeless as the American Dream was delayed with no foreseeable return. While the future of the economy looked bleak, conditions gradually improved. American citizens regained their jobs, the United States government bailed out the banking industry, and regulations were put in place to deter such events as the mortgage crash from ever taking place again. The path to homeowner ship has been forever altered, as loans in general are now more difficult to acquire and can be accompanied by a substantial down payment.

Dodd-Frank is the latest financial reform passed by Congress, and by far the most extensive. According to Amadeo, Dodd-Frank is “the most comprehensive reform since the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933” (2012, para.1). The goals of Dodd-Frank are to implement consumer protections, end bailouts with tax payer money, create a council to identify risks, eliminate loopholes for risky behavior, implement say on pay for executives, protect investors, and enforce strict regulations on Wall Street (House of Representatives, n.d.). Dodd-Frank lacks clarity and is lengthy, running over 1,000 pages long (New York, 2012). In many cases, Dodd-Frank does not contain explicit rules, but instead creates an outline whereby financial oversight agencies have been charged with conducting research and writing and implementing the rules.

Today the United States Americans more than ever; there is a constant fear of an awaiting recession due to the economy. The recession in the later 2000’s has been known as the greatest economic decline since the Great Depression. The United States of America, the banks and businesses are not able to succeed and are failing due to the market. Many people across America cannot afford their homes or bills due to the unemployment rate that seems to keep increasing. Many people blame this on the higher oil or gas prices, and the wars that the United States acts on. The recession has overall declined our economic activity in business profits, employment, and investment. This is all due to our falling market, and the rise of prices that so many Americans cannot afford.

If you listen to the news, you might hear about an economic recovery. But if you listen to your neighbors, you are probably hearing a different story.

In 2007-2008 the US went into a recession, a financial crisis that has since then taken five years to rebuild. During that time millions of Americans were unemployed and faced many economic struggles which negatively impacted the real estate market causing a multitude of foreclosures. The reason for this recession was because there was no authority over banks and they were not being monitored properly. Banks were able to gamble with the finances of millions of people with no consequences towards their actions. The Dodd Frank Act Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 was put into place to make sure that nothing like this ever happened again; The Dodd Frank Act implemented and set laws into place to make sure that banks and financial

However, these mortgages required no income verification, or resources to pay for the mortgage, as long as they signed the mortgage papers. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac were the lending arms that provided the money. Both are now government run, but formerly were privately held companies, unlike Ginnie Mae, which is fully backed by the government. When the homeowners could no longer pay their mortgages, the house of cards collapsed. With the lack of education in this country, the middle and lower class were greatly affected by the government’s intervention in Mortgage rates. The subprime mortgage crisis can be blamed for much of this country’s economic problems, but we don’t need to point fingers at what went wrong, we need to address the problems and find solutions.

In the midst of the current economic downturn, dubbed the “Great Recession”, it is natural to look for one, singular entity or person to blame. Managers of large banks, professional investors and federal regulators have all been named as potential creators of the recession, with varying degrees of guilt. No matter who is to blame, the fallout from the mistakes that were made that led to the current crisis is clear. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current unemployment rate is 9.7%, with 9.3 million Americans out of work (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Compared to a normal economic rate of two or three percent, it is clear that the decisions of one group of people have had a profound affect on the lives of millions of

Supposedly, Dodd-Frank lacks full implementation, providing President Trump an open door with which to shred the remaining aspects of the Act (Frean 2011). With portions of the Act already ineffective, the only effort Trump has to put into permanent dismantlement, is to ensure that they never go into effect. Interestingly enough, for agencies such as the SEC, FDIC, and CTFC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and the like, majority members are cycled out with each presidential term (Dayen 2017). The CFTC prefers a hands off approach and basically ignored the regulatory provisions of Dodd-Frank thereby proving it is not performing as it should (Fischer 2015). So hypothetically, an easy means of controlling the agencies is to control the members,

The Glass Steagall Act was passed on 1933, which is also known as The Banking Act to tighten regulation on the way banks did their business. This act was written as an emergency measure when about 5,000 banks failed during the Great Depression. Banks mostly failed because of the way they would invest with money. The act prohibits banks from investing money on investments that turn out to be risky. Banks could no longer sell securities or bonds. The act also created Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect the deposits of individuals, which is still used to this date. The FDIC in this era insures your deposits in your bank up to $250,000. This gave the public confidence again to deposit their money in the bank. In 1933

Yes we need to have some form of regulation. The proposed regulation is not bad as it covers most of the recommendations discussed in this write up earlier. It reinforces the regulatory role as outlined earlier and requires improving the capital requirements as well as the risk management systems in place in financial institutions. At the same time the focus is mostly on large, complex financial institutions that have a systematic impact so it allows some flexibility particularly for smaller and medium size financial institutions.

Everybody in the United Stated was affected by the recession that began in December of 2007 and spanned all the way to June 2009. Even though the recession is over, many people are still being affected by it and have still not been able to recover from the great recession. “The recent recession features the largest decline in output, consumption, and investment, and the largest increase in unemployment, of any post-war recession”. Many people lost their jobs due to the recession and some of them are still having a hard time finding jobs and getting back on their feet. Businesses

These three agencies were designed to help encourage bank leaning to home buyers. The Federal Housing Administration issued loans that were granted this meant that financial institutes would get their money. Fannie Mae was different from FHA in which they bought loans, this helped lender by freeing up capitol and allowed them to lend more. As Fannie Mae begin to prosper Fannie Mac was establish to create completion between the government lending agencies. When there is completion involved the stress of being out preformed place a burden on people that are working for these lenders. With this type of mentality there was only a matter of time before the lending market would crash. But their can and might be other reason why the housing market crashed. You could look at supply and demand. When there is less inventory prices will rise. If this is true, as home prices rise less buyers will be able to qualify for a mortgage. With less buyers being able to qualify for loans, companies like Fannie Mae and Mac begin to take on toxic loans. Some of these loans included interest only loans and adjustable rate loans with a large principals due at the end of the agree terms. A lot of home buyers could not afford these payment causing homes to go into foreclosure. As the housing market was flooded with foreclosures and rising house prices. The market begin to become unstable, alone with America being at war in two different countries the housing market crashed. The crash sent financial institutes into turmoil, they begin to only lean money well qualified buyers. Some financial institutes merge with others and some even closed, this was due to bad lending practices and regulation. The institutes that survived asked for financial help form the

In order to finance purchases by consumers there must be credit loans. In the 1920s there was no thing as the FDIC which guaranteed money in the bank. Banks in the 1920s were so eager to give out loans that that loaned more money than what they had on reserved. In 1929, it created “bank runs” and mass sell offs, “$16 million shares” (wiki) in one day. History repeated itself In the 2000s. As fast a people were getting mortgages they were approving to unworthy people. There were “trillions of dollars of mortgages” written, which “started a wave of delinquencies and defaults” (FBTB). Qualifications were liberal, people were able to borrow with little money down. On top of that in the mid- 2000s home prices started to decline which had before been rising “57% over five years” (HGU). The, bubble bursted, This fast rise in prices led to a halt in home sales “double digit into low single digit to negative digit” (HGU). The lack of home sales and trillions of dollars in mortgages did not just cripple the housing market. It affected people with loans such as student and mortgages could no longer pay the minimal