“Consumer advocates said the two bills could lead to abuses. For example, the bill addressing transactions between related companies refers to swaps between ‘affiliates.’ Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, said he worried that corporate lawyers would try broadening the use of that term to include more and more companies. ‘It’s ridiculous to put this broad exemption into statute,’ Stanley said.”

‘The regulators are under a lot of pressure,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director of Americans for Financial Reform, an advocacy coalition that filed a comment letter urging that the draft rule be strengthened rather than watered down. Stanley, a former congressional aide, said that his side has at most a couple of dozen people working the agencies and Congress. Meantime, he said, hundreds of banking representatives are enlisting their customers by warning that the rule’s fallout will be higher costs and less-liquid markets.’

Click here  to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – March 17, 2012 – March 23, 2012.

“The Wall Street Journal has reported that the big banks are pressing Congress for a statutory delay in the implementation of the Volcker Rule. They claim that the fact that the law will become effective this July, possibly before all the rules are finalized, will lead to disruptions in our financial markets. But that’s simply not true. …his lobbying effort should be see for what it is — just another effort to undermine and negate the Volcker Rule so that Wall Street can continue proprietary speculation while taking advantage of the safety net taxpayers provide to the banking system.”

Click here to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – March 10, 2012 – March 16, 2012.