Banks are pressing U.S. policymakers for a multiyear delay of a rule requiring them to sell investments in private-equity and venture-capital funds, the latest industry push to scale back a central provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bank officials, trade groups and lawmakers are quietly lobbying the Federal Reserve to grant a reprieve of up to seven years from a provision that limits banks' investments in private-equity and venture-capital funds. Absent action by the Fed, the critics warn, banks will be forced to sell their stakes in these funds at fire-sale prices by next summer, when firms are expected to begin complying with the rule. A delay would affect large banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley that manage and invest in such funds, industry officials said. It would also affect smaller regional banks that own stakes in the funds.
