Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

Enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed by President Barack Obama on 21 July 2010 in response to the 2008 financial crisis, Dodd-Frank aims to promote financial stability, end too-big-to-fail, and protect consumers from abusive financial-services practices. It created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Financial Stability Oversight Council, imposed derivatives-clearing requirements, and enacted the Volcker Rule restricting banks from proprietary trading with depositors' funds, implemented via a 2013 joint final rule from five federal regulators.

The Volcker Rule prohibits taking positions in securities or derivatives for the purpose of realizing profits from short-term price moves, on the premise that depository banks' core function should be lending and facilitating customer trades, not taking on market price exposures.