FSOC We Hardly Knew Ye

As the financial services sector and Republican politicians draft the obituary of the Dodd-Frank Act, it remains to be seen whether that landmark legislation will be survived by the Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC"). Whether FSOC itself survives the advancing wave of deregulation, however, it seems increasingly likely that the FSOC's reasons for existing will not.

Section 111 of the Dodd-Frank Act created the inter-agency FSOC, made up of the heads of eight independent financial regulators and chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury. In general, the FSOC is tasked with identifying and responding to risks to the financial stability of the U.S. financial system and with encouraging discipline in the financial services market.  Like the Department of Homeland Security, the FSOC was created to centralize across federal agencies the analysis and response to financial security threats.