Promoting Financial Stability and Economic Growth: An Introduction to BPC's Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative

The objective of financial regulation in the United States should be to promote financial stability, economic growth, and consumer protection. The purpose of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative is to evaluate the financial regulatory system in the wake of Dodd-Frank and to propose reforms that will improve financial regulation and supervision while still preserving the intent of Dodd-Frank to prevent systemic risks and to help consumers.

The initiative will assess what is working well and what is not working so well, and it will elaborate on areas that remain unclear, such as on the practical implementation and implications of the Volcker Rule and of the non-bank resolution authority included in Dodd-Frank. The initiative will propose finetuning that involves incremental improvements as well as more substantial reforms that address gaps that remain in the wake of Dodd-Frank. We see these latter suggestions as useful even if currently there are only modest legislative prospects for large-scale changes—such as a fundamental consolidation of the regulatory agencies. In the meantime, the initiative will propose concrete and actionable steps for policymakers and regulators to consider.