Two top regulators are raising new — and late — objections to the "Volcker rule," arguing that it is too soft on banks and threatening to further delay its implementation beyond the year-end deadline set by the Obama administration, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The objections from officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, two of the five agencies Congress charged with drafting the rule, are disrupting a frantic scramble by regulators to complete the rule, which is designed to curb risk-taking by banks. At the SEC, a newly installed Democratic commissioner, Kara Stein, has raised a number of concerns about the current version of the rule, which has been under discussion for three years. Stein, a former congressional staffer who helped draft the Dodd-Frank law, believes the rule allows banks to sidestep its purpose. CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, meanwhile, has told officials working on the rule that he is concerned that it doesn't crack down hard enough on proprietary trading, an activity banned by the Volcker rule, named for former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
