Volcker Rule vote set for Dec. 10

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A long-anticipated part of the Wall Street reform law is expected to be voted on by regulators Dec. 10. The Volcker Rule, meant to separate investment and proprietary trading activity from bank lending arms, has been debated by lawmakers and market participants, and is made in conjunction with a number of regulatory bodies.

The five bodies that must approve the rule are the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The rule is written in nearly 1,000 pages, and regulators are expected to start enforcing the rule in 2015.

CFTC chairman Gary Gensler, whose term ends in January, has argued that the rule is too weak to be efficient. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also has argued that the rule has "many fundamental issues." The version to be voted on next week has been modified to be tougher.

The rule is named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. It is part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act created to help regulate financial institutions, especially those that could have a large impact on the overall economy. The Dodd-Frank Act has also been criticized since its inception for being far behind schedule and addressing too many fundamental issues.

[Bloomberg] [Wall Street Journal]