Volcker Rule Costs Tallied as U.S. Regulators Press Deadline

The fate of the Dodd-Frank Act’s ban on banks trading for their own accounts -- one of the final pieces of the U.S. effort to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis -- may rest with a cluster of economists at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The agency’s 50 economists are attempting to calculate the costs and benefits of the so-called Volcker rule, a linchpin of the financial overhaul that would curb the kind of high-stakes proprietary trading that could lead to crippling losses or bailouts at banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. or Citigroup Inc.