Dimon: ‘Very Hard’ To Distinguish Between Hedging And Prop Trading

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon exposed a key loophole in the Volcker Rule, admitting “it is going to be very hard to make a bright line distinction” between hedging and proprietary trading. The Volcker Rule was designed to forbid speculation with depositor funds, but exempted hedging specific risks. Dimon’s admissions suggest banks will blur the distinction — either to arbitrage the rules, or out of genuine confusion about what constitutes a hedge and what constitutes a prop trade.