Skirmishing ahead of Volcker Rule war

Do you get the sense that a massive showdown looms over the Volcker Rule?

We're certainly seeing a lot of tactical maneuvering. This week, a group of big-name CEOs--including the likes of Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, James Gorman and others--huddled with Treasury and Federal Reserve officials to talk about regulations. Obviously, few issues are bigger than the Volcker Rule, which is beyond controversial these days.

Subsequent to the meeting, the New York Times reported that the rule "is on track for completion sooner than some bankers had expected, dashing the hopes of financial industry lobbyists, who have pressed for a delay. Regulators are making significant progress on a final draft of the regulation, the Volcker Rule, and some officials expected to complete it by September and possibly as early as this summer."

The regulators are clearly making it known that they are sticking to their regulatory guns and are not being cowed by a strong offensive by the industry, which would like to delay the rule in hopes that the Senate goes to the Republicans.

At this point, I expect all this will end up in court, as you can bet the industry is carefully putting together a legal strategy. The strike-down of the proxy access rule last year by the courts has left some optimistic that the industry can apply the same arguments, which focus on the costs and the lack of cost-benefit analysis, to kill the Volcker Rule. This is far from over.

For more:
- here's the Times article

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