10 Key Reactions to Final Volcker Rule
December 10, 2013 4:23 PM
Regulators braved a short-lived but intense snow storm in Washington D.C. on Tuesday to approve the final Volcker Rule, a regulation designed to prevent banks from engaging in proprietary trading. Within minutes of its approval, banks, lawmakers and others reacted to the long-awaited provision. Following are some of the highlights:
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President Barack Obama
"The Volcker Rule will make it illegal for firms to use government-insured money to make speculative bets that threaten the entire financial system, and demand a new era of accountability from CEOs who must sign off on their firm's practices."
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John Gerspach, chief financial officer of Citigroup
"What's going to be important is the details. And the details will really include the documentation that institutions will have to have in order to justify or demonstrate that they really are capable and should have the exemptions."
Tim Pawlenty, former governor of Minnesota and now CEO of the Financial Service Roundtable
"Financial institutions should not engage in unreasonable risk and regulators should not stifle investments essential to growing jobs and small businesses. The Volcker Rule issued today leans against striking that balance as it will reduce needed access to capital."
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Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
"The Volcker Rule will change behavior and practices in our financial markets to safeguard taxpayers from risks created by banks' proprietary trading and investments in hedge funds and private equity funds."
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Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich. and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
"No regulation is ever perfect, and we will carefully monitor implementation and hold regulators and firms accountable. If problems emerge - for whatever reason - we will quickly press regulators to address them."
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee.
"At first glance, it looks like the Volcker Rule achieves just what Congress wanted it to do: it 'threads the needle.'"
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Kenneth Bentsen, president of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
"SIFMA remains concerned that an overly restrictive Volcker Rule will inflict serious harm on our nation's economy and American savers."
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David Hirschmann, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness
"We are disappointed that regulators may have sacrificed an effective process that could have avoided adverse consequences for Main Street businesses. We will now have to carefully examine the final rule to consider the impact on liquidity and market-making, and take all options into account as we decide how best to proceed."
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Sally Miller, CEO of the Institute of International Bankers
"While we need to study the final rule in detail, it is somewhat encouraging that an exemption for trading in foreign sovereign debt has been provided under certain circumstances."
Frank Keating, former governor of Oklahoma and president of the American Bankers Association
"The Volcker Rule was intended to reduce systemic risk, not make it harder for banks as they go about serving their customers."
(Image: Bloomberg News)
