Fed’s George slams Dodd-Frank reform, says too complex

(Reuters) – A senior Federal Reserve official on Friday criticized major U.S. reforms designed to avoid a repeat of the devastating 2008 financial crisis, saying they failed to address industry weaknesses and could make matters worse the next time around.

In a speech in Beijing, Kansas City Federal Reserve President Esther George suggested the Dodd-Frank Act had entrenched certain institutions as “to”, encouraging more, not less, risky behavior by Wall Street.

“Unfortunately, governance and market discipline mechanisms are at risk of being diluted by a panoply of regulations. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Dodd-Frank Act,” she said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Financial Stability Institute-China Banking Regulatory Commission.