what was the goal of the volcker rule 
the volcker rule s origins date back to 2009 when economist and former federal reserve fed chair paul volcker proposed a piece of regulation in response to the ongoing financial crisis and after the nation s largest banks accumulated large losses from their proprietary trading arms the aim was to protect bank customers by preventing banks from making certain types of speculative investments that contributed to the crisis essentially it prohibits banks from using their own accounts customer funds for short term proprietary trading of securities derivatives and commodity futures as well as options on any of these instruments 6 volcker ultimately hoped to reestablish the divide between commercial banking and investment banking a division that once existed but was legally dissolved by a partial repeal of the glass steagall act in 1999 