Chart of the Day: The slow pace of financial reform

If your boss is getting on your case for missing deadlines at work, tell her your track record isn't nearly as bad as federal financial regulators.

More than three years ago, Congress passed the sweeping, 850-page Dodd-Frank overhaul of the rule book that bankers, brokers and the rest of the financial services industry is supposed to play by. But to date, only about half of those new rules have been completed by the dozen or so agencies in charge of writing and enforcing them. About a quarter of the rules haven't even been proposed.

Of the 12 key areas tracked by the law firm Davis Polk (pdf), which advises clients on how to navigate the new rules, progress has been slowest in regulating mortgages (only 15 of 49 have been written); asset-backed securities (two of 14 rules are done); derivatives (49 out of 90) and rules governing "systemic risk" (10 of 28) – the category that includes measures designed to prevent another Too Big To Fail bank from driving the global financial system off a cliff.

One of the biggest sticking points – the so-called Volcker rule – was one of the most hotly contested because it was supposed to force banks to get out of the business of making risky bets with depositors' money. Critics say the final rule was substantially watered down by the time it was completed in December.

That was before bankers complained about a piece of the rule and regulators agreed to revise it a month later.

—By CNBC's John Schoen. Follow him on Twitter @johnwschoen or email him.