SEC getting cold feet on Dodd-Frank?

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may be getting cold feet when it comes to implementing new rules intended to reform Wall Street, a new report finds. 

The report from the consumer rights group Public Citizen finds that the SEC has delayed action on nearly two-thirds of the rules it planned to issue this year, many of which correspond to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

In the SEC’s fall 2013 regulatory agenda, the financial regulator listed 22 rules it planned to finalize early this year, but 14 of those rules have been delayed, according to the report.

“In the majority of cases, the SEC now tells the public it needs more time to consider or finalize proposals,” said Bartlett Naylor, who wrote the report for Public Citizen.

This comes four years after President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act, at a time when the SEC has completed only 44 percent of the rules required by the law, the report says. In comparison, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has completed 84 percent of its Dodd-Frank rules.

“Sorely needed Wall Street reform measures ordered by Congress to protect regular Americans and the markets still have not come to fruition nearly seven years after the financial collapse,” said Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “This is an unacceptable pace for rulemaking.”