A Better Path Forward on the Volcker Rule and the Lincoln Amendment by James D. Cox, Jonathan R. Macey and Annette L. Nazareth

“Two late additions to Congress’s response to the financial crisis have proved to be among the most complex and challenging for U.S. financial regulators to put into place. The degree of difficulty these two rules present, their unknown impact on financial markets and the economy, and the lack of international coordination surrounding them have led to continued regulatory delay with promulgating these two rules. Accordingly, the Capital Markets Task Force of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative recommends an improved alternative solution to the proposed Volcker Rule on proprietary trading and the Lincoln Amendment on “pushing-out” dealing on swaps. The task force recommends a different approach to facilitate the implementation of the Volcker Rule and also recommends delaying implementation of the Lincoln Amendment on swaps push-out until more real-world experience is gained with the Volcker Rule, however it is adopted.”