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Speeches & Testimony

Statement of Martin J. Gruenberg Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Notice of Proposed Rulemaking:
Proposed Revisions to Prohibitions and Restrictions on Proprietary Trading and Certain Interests in, and Relationships with, Hedge Funds and Private Equity Funds

May 31, 2018

The Volcker Rule is one of the most prominent provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. Its purpose is to prohibit risky proprietary trading from benefitting from the public safety net.

When the regulation implementing the current Volcker Rule was finalized in 2013, the presentation to the FDIC Board noted that the agencies would “continue to revisit and revise the rule as appropriate, in a manner designed to ensure that the final rule faithfully implements the requirements and purposes of the statute in a manner that allows for effective supervision and enforcement.”

To that end, the FDIC worked with the other agencies participating in this rulemaking to explore modifications to the regulation intended to provide clarity to the requirements of the rule, to simplify compliance, and to improve supervision and implementation, but only within certain parameters under which the core principles of the Volcker Rule would be preserved.

These parameters include:

The central goal, from my standpoint, is to preserve the core principles of the Volcker Rule as the agencies seek to provide greater clarity and simplicity to facilitate compliance. On that basis, I am prepared to support publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register for public notice and comment.

I would like to conclude with a word of thanks to the staffs of all the agencies who worked diligently on this proposed rule, and in particular I would like to thank the staff of the FDIC who worked with great skill and dedication.