House Republicans Joint Letter Requests Volcker Rule Implementation Delay

Representatives Spencer Bachus (the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee) and Jeb Hensarling (who will succeed Bachus in that role in the next Congress) submitted a joint letter to the Federal Reserve requesting the further delay of Volcker Rule's effective date for two years after the final version is issued. The Volcker Rule would ban U.S. banks from certain proprietary trading activities.

Among the points made by the letter are the following:

• there is no evidence that proprietary trading by banks contributed to the financial crisis;
• no other country has adopted rules similar to the proposed form of the Volcker Rule; as a result, U.S. financial institutions will be put at a competitive disadvantage;
• it is rumored that different regulators are adopting different versions of the Volcker Rule, which will result in many firms being subject to numerous sets of rules; and
• there is insufficient time for firms to come into compliance with whatever rules are adopted.

View letter in full here (links externally to PDF).