5 Key Fixes That Will Improve Dodd-Frank

When it comes to financial regulation and reform, one issue matters more than all others: systemic risk. In 2010, when Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, its authors made choices that they believed would address that problem. Since then, debate about the law has not been particularly constructive. One side has argued that no part of its 2,000 pages could be modified or improved. The other side has found little to respect in the legislation. The authors of this article found themselves on three sides of the financial crisis - as a Democratic senior Treasury official, as a Republican Financial Services Committee staffer and as an attorney representing a distressed institution. Today, we agree that Dodd-Frank needs reform.