Comment: 12 Regulatory Reform Predictions for '12

Next year is shaping up another to be another significant year for US regulatory reform. Here are our predictions of 12 key issues for 2012:

1. Oversight of, and challenge to, regulatory reform increases

Congressional oversight of the regulatory reform process will increase as the 2012 elections approach. We also expect more legal challenges to rulemakings, placing pressure on regulators to conduct more rigorous cost-benefit analyses of their proposals. The confluence of these factors may slow the pace of some of the more controversial and politically sensitive reforms, such as the Volcker rule and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.