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Should Davis Polk be designated at a "Sytemically Important Financial Illustrator," asks the Financial Times, in reference to a "gem" of a chart that the law firm created to track Dodd-Frank's progress at age 2.

Mete out fitting punishments and get it over with. There are much more urgent issues in front of us.

Firms may abandon prudent risk management practices such as hedging with derivatives to avoid the SIFI designation. Agencies should have to prepare the equivalent of an Environmental Impact Statement before slapping the SIFI stamp on a firm.

Finally, senior policymakers are focusing on negative equity. But the answer to the problem is to change borrowers' incentives, not to abrogate contract and property rights.

"Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, is locked in a tight reelection race against Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg," writes American Banker’s Kevin Wack.

Much more can be done with proven strategies like short sales, home leaseback programs and refinancing for underwater borrowers.

The regulator's recent report highlights supposedly high-priority concerns about small banks without mentioning the size, concentration and real risks of the megabanks.

The CFPB announced that it will include credit rating agencies in the scope of its supervision. Dodd-Frank authorizes the agency to extend its oversight to non-lending institutions.

In the United States, outlining a different narrative about what happened in the financial crisis opens one to political attack.

The credit card industry's proposed deal to settle long-pending retailer lawsuits set insiders chattering, divided over how much each side won and lost in the deal.