The FinServ Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Subcommittees held a joint hearing today to assess the work of the banking agencies, SEC and CFTC in implementing Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the so-called Volcker Rule (see FSM Report PROPTRADE5). In general, the Volcker Rule received mostly skepticism from both sides of the aisle as Subcommittee Members showed little confidence in the ability of the regulators to ban proprietary trading by banking entities without disturbing their underwriting and market-making activities. Furthermore, a lack of any international support raised Member concerns that U.S. firms would be competitively disadvantaged by what FinServ Chairman Bachus (R-AL) called a “self-inflicted wound.”
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