Cost-benefit defeat weighing on "gun-shy" SEC

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has finalised only a fifth of its Dodd-Frank Act rule-makings, two years after the law was passed. Cost-benefit analysis concerns are slowing the process down – but the result is better regulation, lawyers say. Peter Madigan reports

If the Dodd-Frank Act rule-makings were a race between the various regulators, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would be losing. The agency has finalised just over a fifth of the rules it has been asked to write – although technically, the proportion should be a shade higher. A final rule on proxy access was overturned last year by a court that ruled the SEC had not conducted a proper analysis of the costs and benefits – a requirement of the Securities Exchange Act – and five