Federal Agencies Extend Commentary Period for Volcker

Financial institutions now have more elbow room for their commentary, thanks to the decision by four federal agencies to extend commentary for a controversial rule under the Dodd-Frank Act.

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The ""FDIC"":http://www.fdic.gov/, ""Federal Reserve"":http://www.federalreserve.gov/, ""Office of the Comptroller of the Currency"":http://www.occ.treas.gov/ (OCC), and ""Securities and Exchange Commission"":http://www.sec.gov/

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acted in unison Friday by agreeing to delay commentary deadlines for the Volcker Rule, which proposes to ban short-term proprietary trading for financial institutions.

""Due to the complexity of the issues involved and to facilitate coordination of the rulemaking among the responsible agencies as provided in section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Agencies have determined that an extension of the comment period... is appropriate,"" the four said in a statement released Friday.

""This action will allow interested persons additional time to analyze the proposed rules and prepare their comments,"" the statement read.

An OCC report from November forecasted that the Volcker Rule could cost banks as much as $1 billion over the next several years, as more financial institutions feel the burn from greater manpower, overhead, and other expenses needed to comply with the rule.

The agencies will receive public commentary over the rule until February 13, 2012.