And for too-big-to-fail banks, it's the 'pause that refreshes.' The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced it had approved a clarification of the so-called Volcker Rule, to this effect:

An entity covered by section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Reform act, or so-called Volcker Rule, has the full 2-year period provided by the statute to fully conform its activities and investments, unless the Board extends the conformance period.

This means that the Volcker Rule, which was to have gone into effect on or about 7/21/12, will instead become effective in 2014.  Here is the text of the Official Statement that addresses the question of clarifying the Volcker Rule.

The Board’s conformance rule provides entities covered by section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act a period of 2 years after the statutory effective date, which would be until July 21, 2014, to fully conform their activities and investments to the requirements of section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act and any implementing rules adopted in final under that section, unless that period is extended by the Board.

The Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the agencies) plan to administer their oversight of banking entities under their respective jurisdictions in accordance with the Board’s conformance rule and the attached statement.  The agencies have invited public comment on a proposal to implement the Volcker rule, but have not adopted a final rule. The statement was issued with approval from these government entities: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) To access the referenced story:  [SEC PR 12-70, 4/19/12].