“Opponents of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul won an important battle on Wednesday as a federal judge here stripped the “too big to fail” label from the insurance company MetLife.

“With memories still fresh on how the American International Group’s 2008 near-collapse rattled the global financial system, the Dodd-Frank Act empowered regulators to classify certain large nonbank institutions as deserving as the big banks of increased capital requirements and greater scrutiny.

“But Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia overturned MetLife’s designation, raising questions about how regulators determine who is too big to fail.”

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““I don’t think there’s any question that if this decision were allowed to stand, it would, at a minimum, slow down the regulation of systemic threats to the shadow banking system, and it may well prevent the regulation of those systemic threats,” said Dennis Kelleher, president and chief executive of Better Markets, an advocacy group.”

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Read the full New York Times article by Victoria Finkle here.