“The European Union on Wednesday revealed a long-awaited proposal to reduce the systemic risk posed by big banks, a measure that would bring the bloc’s regulations more closely into line with those of the United States. But it is unlikely to become law anytime soon.

“Presenting the plan at a news conference here, Michel Barnier, the commissioner responsible for overseeing financial services, described it as “the final stone in the structure of our ambitious financial reform.”

“Like the Volcker Rule in the United States, the proposal aims to limit the likelihood that big banks will again endanger the financial system with the kind of risky behavior that brought on the financial crisis.

“The proposal would affect “around 30” of the largest European banks and a handful of foreign banks with big European subsidiaries, institutions that Mr. Barnier described as being “too big to fail, too expensive to bail out and too complex to resolve.”

***

Read full NY Times article here