The period for comment about proposed changes to the “Volcker Rule” has been extended by one month to Oct. 17, the federal banking regulators (and securities and commodity supervisors) said Tuesday.
In a release, the five agencies – the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), as well as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission – noted that the extended comment time will provide “interested parties with approximately four and a half months from the date the proposal was released to the public to submit comments.”
The agencies noted that they originally released the proposal in early June with a 60-day comment period.
Last month, FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams indicated, in comments to reporters, that an extension to the comment period may be in the offing. She declined to provide her views during the Aug. 23 press conference (called to discuss second-quarter banking industry data). But asked about industry requests for more comment time, she said, “I believe we are open to an extension.”
The proposal, released by five federal agencies in June and 686 pages long, tailors Volcker Rule requirements for three tiers of firms based on trading activity level. In brief, firms with less than $1 billion of consolidated gross trading assets and liabilities would have a rebuttable presumption of compliance with the rule. This group reportedly represents about 98% of total U.S. trading activity by banking entities.
Agencies Extend Comment Period for Proposed Rule Simplifying and Tailoring the “Volcker Rule”