Volcker Rule Regulatory Harmonization Act

Apr. 13, 2018 | H.R. 4790

This bill would undermine the implementation of the Volcker Rule by giving sole rulemaking authority to the Federal Reserve and allowing banks with less than $10 billion in assets to engage in proprietary trading with publicly insured deposits. A core component of the Volcker Rule is to prevent banks from using deposited money to finance speculative trading. Yet, the bill would cut the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the custodian and institutional protector of the deposit insurance fund, entirely out of the implementation of the Volcker Rule. H.R. 4790 would eliminate the FDIC’s role in writing and interpreting the rule and weaken the interpretation of the rule and its enforcement. If enacted this bill has the potential to unravel the regulatory system aimed at preventing the need for future bailouts of “too-big-to-fail” financial institutions. The bill passed the House on April 11, 2018, and referred to the Senate Banking Committee.