Dodd-Frank is a major piece of reform legislation that affects companies beyond the financial services industry. The big issues since the passage of the law have concerned implementation: the costs and the timeline. The SEC and CFTC have been really pressed to meet the many rulemaking milestones mandated by the law, though the SEC in particular has done some fine work.

The Government Accountability Office estimates that the cost of putting the law into practice will hit $2.9 billion over five years. "Not all of that would come from taxpayer pockets," notes the Wall Street Journal. "Six of the 11 agencies charged with implementing the law are fully or partly funded by assessments on the companies or entities they oversee, one fully by revenues collected, and only three fully or partly by congressional appropriations." In addition, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be funded by the Federal Reserve, which is not funded by taxpayers.

Obviously this is fodder for the political backlash we're now seeing against the law. Financial firms are leading the charge. As for companies, it's remains unclear exactly what their specific compliance burden will be. For Consult2Comply, this spells opportunity. It announced that Dodd-Frank is now available as a standard for mapping in their compliance solution, Compliance Mapper. 

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