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Obama Proposes new Bank Rules on Size and Trading

By Anonymous

From the WSJ: Obama Proposes New Bank Regulations

The White House wants commercial banks that take deposits from customers to be barred from investing on behalf of the bank itself?what's known as proprietary trading?and said the administration will seek new limits on the size and concentration of financial institutions.

... Banks shielded from risk through federal-deposit insurance, or aided in financial crises by low-interest loans from the Federal Reserve Board, would no longer be allowed to engage in trading unrelated to their customers' interests, one senior administration official said.

Under the proposed rule, commercial banks would be prohibited from owning, investing in or advising hedge funds or private equity firms. Bank regulators would not be simply given the discretion to enforce such rules. They would be required to do so.
...
Administration officials said they also want to toughen an existing cap on bank market share. Since 1994, no bank can have more than 10% of the nation's insured deposits. The Obama administration wants that cap to include non-insured deposits and other assets.

More from Bloomberg: Obama Calls for Limiting Banks? Size, Trading

Full post as published by Calculated Risk on January 21, 2010 (boomark / email).