Banks’ World Under Dodd-Frank Takes Shape With Volcker Rule

With the release of the Volcker rule, the Dodd-Frank Act’s regulatory overhaul is largely complete, giving banks a new degree of certainty about the limits of their business in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis.

The rule, issued yesterday by five U.S. agencies, bars banks from speculating with their own money. In the three years since Dodd-Frank was enacted, regulators also have completed guidelines on how the government will dismantle the largest financial firms when they fail, taken steps to make derivatives trading more transparent, increased the capital banks must hold and defined which mortgages are considered risky.