Financial regulators told the Government Accountability Office that they think coordination in their Dodd-Frank Act rulemakings has improved the quality of those rulemakings but has slowed the process to finalization – all in all not a bad thing, according to NAFCU’s Carrie Hunt.

In its report, GAO-13-195, the GAO said regulators reported they have “prioritized developing responsive, appropriate rules over meeting tight statutory deadlines. As a result, some important rules may take the longest to develop.”

NAFCU last June urged Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to use his role as head of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, created by the Dodd-Frank Act, to establish “robust interagency coordination” among the council’s member agencies in establishing rules for financial institutions. GAO had called for such coordination as well, and lawmakers picked up that theme later last summer.

Regulators will need to issue rules to implement 236 Dodd-Frank Act provisions across nine key areas.

“The heavy lifting required to make Dodd-Frank a reality ultimately rests on the shoulders of the financial industry, including the nation’s non-profit, member-owned credit unions,” Hunt, NAFCU’s general counsel and vice president of regulatory affairs, said Thursday. “We will keep pressing for regulatory coordination so any rules that are issued do not detract from credit unions’ ability to serve their members.”

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