"Much ado about nothing," is just one literary turn of phrase that comes to mind in considering the initial uproar over Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the long wait for the implementing regulations. Here’s some background to add some perspective to that observation: Section 342 of Dodd-Frank, passed by Congress and signed into law by the President at the end of 2010, directed each of twelve affected federal financial industry regulators to establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion ("OMWI") and, by no later than January 21, 2011, to publish proposed regulations designed to increase diversity, in both employment and contracting, in the financial industry. Now, more than five years later, six of the agencies finally have met their "deadline" with the joint release on June 9, 2015, of their Final Diversity and Inclusion Standards. The six agencies are the Federal Reserve Board, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Final Standards went into effect on June 10, 2015, and apply to all entities regulated by one of the six agencies. Continue reading >