Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The government can move slowly

Especially when regulating Wall Street is involved. Take, for instance, the Volcker Rule (part of Dodd-Frank), which stated "a banking entity shall not—(A) engage in proprietary trading; or (B) acquire or retain any equity, partnership, or other ownership interest in or sponsor a hedge fund or a private equity fund.”

Well, Dodd-Frank was signed into law on July 21, 2010 but Federal regulators did not provide their interpretation on how the rule should be implemented until December 2013, indicating at that time that Wall Street had until July 21, 2015 to fully implement the rule. Then the Federal Reserve granted banks an extension until July 21, 2017 to bring their hedge funds and private equity funds into compliance.

Now, the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) want to “simplify” the Volcker Rule’s ban on proprietary trading at Wall Street banks by giving banks more leeway in terms of trading activity and simplifying how banks can tell if that trading is permitted by law. 

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