In This Issue:

Leading the Past Week; Legislative Branch; Executive Branch; CFPB; Treasury; SEC; CFTC; FHA; and International.

Excerpt from Leading the Past Week

Despite the full throated defense of the Dodd-Frank Act, it was a challenging week for proponents of America’s Financial Regulatory Reform. First, Chairman Bernanke publicly spoke what had been privately whispered for weeks – that the Fed would be unable to finalize the rule in a timely manner – and subtly added that it would take the Fed considerably more time than the law’s July deadline. Then, CFTC Chairman Gensler appeared before the House Agriculture Committee to discuss the agency’s 2012 agenda, where in addition trying to appease those in Congress who equate rising gas prices with oil speculation, he also continued to take bruising questions about the Commission’s implementation of Dodd-Frank, while at the same time his fellow Commissioner Scott O’Malia took the unprecedented step of urging the OMB to conduct more stringent cost-benefit analysis of the Commission’s Dodd-Frank rulemakings.