At the Finish Line on the Volcker Rule

Article source
New York Times

Five years after the financial crisis, President Obama summoned regulators to the White House for an update on how they were changing the ways of Wall Street.

Gathered in the Roosevelt Room on a late summer afternoon, the regulators outlined their progress in carrying out the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, save for one crucial element: the Volcker Rule. The rule, a centerpiece of Dodd-Frank and a symbol of the Obama administration’s effort to rein in risk-taking after the financial crisis, was mired in delays, a victim of internal regulatory squabbling and fierce lobbying from the financial industry.

But when Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew spoke up, people briefed on the meeting recalled in recent interviews, he declared that the rule was too important to delay and that he wanted the deal done by the end of 2013. Mr. Lew, the people said, had also met privately with the rule’s namesake, Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman who championed the rule’s ban on banks’ trading for their own gain.

Mr. Obama, striking a similarly urgent tone, emphasized that “it’s really important to make the deadline,” the people said.

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