Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, and Occupy the SEC hosted a conference call with reporters and bloggers Tuesday, February 14th at 2:00 PM EST to discuss the importance of the “Volcker Rule” and calling on the regulators to draft an effective final rule, and to resist industry’s efforts to defend a status quo that serves Wall Street special interests and puts the public at risk.
“The controversial Volcker rule that regulates proprietary trading came in for a final round of comment as frustrated bankers, anti-Wall Street activists and Paul Volcker himself flooded government regulators with last-minute statements before the deadline Monday at midnight. …Backing up Volcker were a number of Democrat senators as well as a coalition group comprising Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, and Occupy the SEC, a sub-group associated with New York’s Occupy Wall Street movement.”
“Americans for Financial Reform letter on the rule: ‘There are significant positive elements in this proposed rule. But it still falls well short of fully implementing the statute. It is clear from both the legislative history and the text of the statute that in passing the Volcker Rule Congress sought fundamental change in the American financial system by restoring basic firewalls between the banking system and the capital markets.'”
AFR submitted a comment to regulators on the Volcker Rule to ban proprietary trading and fund investments in banking institutions. This rule is a centerpiece of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Click here to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – February 4, 2012 – February 10, 2012.
The “Volcker Rule” is a part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill that bans banks and other large, critical financial institutions from making risky, speculative bets using taxpayer backed funds – a practice called “proprietary trading.” Tell the financial regulators to write a strong “Volcker Rule” and end excessive speculation at big Wall Street banks that puts the public at risk.
Click here to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – January 28, 2012 – February 3, 2012.
Click here to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – January 21, 2012 – January 27, 2012.
“Nearly two dozen professors and groups have joined the effort. Bank of America, the Fed and the Treasury declined to comment on the planned petition. …the letter was distributed on a list-serve for a coalition called Americans for Financial Reform…”
“‘It is specious to the point of misleading to suggest that the needs for liquidity currently provided by banks will not be filled,’ Wallace Turbeville, who represented Americans for Financial Reform, a nonprofit group that favors new restrictions on Wall Street risk-taking, told a Congressional committee this month.”