House Passes Dodd-Frank Amendment, But SIFI Uncertainty Remains

One of the most unwieldy parts of the Dodd-Frank act (and a rare point of bipartisan agreement) is that the Federal Reserve has the right to designate non-bank systemically important financial institutions (SIFI), such as large life insurance companies, but it doesn’t have the authority to tailor the rules to fit a different business model. This week the House of Representatives passed a bill that would fix that, but SIFI insurers still have a long wait before finding out what’s expected of them.