On January 30, 2020, five federal regulatory agencies, the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (“FDIC”), the Federal Reserve Board, the
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Securities and
Exchange Commission (together, the “Regulatory
Agencies”), published a notice of proposed rulemaking (the
“Proposed Rule”) to modify Section 619 of the
Dodd-Frank Act, known as the Volcker Rule.
As currently constructed, the Volcker Rule prevents banking
entities from acquiring or retaining ownership interests in or
sponsoring “covered funds” such as hedge, venture
capital and private equity funds. The Regulatory Agencies
acknowledge that the implementing regulations of the Volcker Rule
have created “compliance uncertainty” and have
“imposed limits on certain banking services and activities
that the Volcker rule was not intended to restrict.”
