Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, made a direct pitch to Congress yesterday in an effort to ensure that his proposed ban on proprietary trading by banks would survive legislative scrutiny.
　　美联储前主席保罗·沃尔克(Paul Volcker)昨天直接游说美国国会，以求确保他提出的禁止银行自营交易的建议通过立法审查。
　　Mr Volcker, whose ideas for splitting the banking industry received an unexpected endorsement from President Barack Obama last month, told the Senate banking committee in written testimony his initiative would help end the concept of “too big to fail”.
　　沃尔克分拆银行业的想法上月意外得到巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)总统的支持。他在书面证词中对参议院银行委员会表示，他的倡议将有助于结束某些银行“太大而不能倒闭”的概念。
　　Under the so-called “Volcker rule”, riskier proprietary trading operations would be separated from more traditional banking. Groups that profit from in-house hedge funds, private equity firms or trading for their own account should not benefit from implicit or explicit government guarantees.
　　根据所谓的“沃尔克规则”，风险较高的自营业务将与传统银行业务分离。获利于内部对冲基金、私人股本公司或自有账户交易的银行集团，不应得益于明确或隐含的政府担保。
　　Mr Volcker, who chairs a presidential advisory board, dismissed industry concern that it was difficult to separate proprietary trading from the buying and selling conducted on behalf of customers. “Every banker I speak with knows very well what ‘proprietary trading' means and implies,” he said.
　　目前担任美国总统经济复苏顾问委员会主席的沃尔克驳斥了银行业的一个担心，即很难将自营交易和代表客户进行的买卖分离开来。他表示：“我接触过的每一个银行家都很清楚‘自营交易'是怎么回事。”
　　He said while trading would be allowed if it was undertaken for customers, regulators should clamp down on any bets that fell outside this remit. “There will be temptations to speculate by aggressive, highly remunerated traders,” he noted.
　　他说，尽管代表客户进行的交易将得到允许，但监管部门应打击在此范围之外的任何投机。“胆子大、薪水高的交易员将面临投机诱惑，”他指出。
　　The Volcker proposal would allow hedge funds and other smaller institutions to continue aggressive bets as long as they were allowed to live and die by their actions.
　　沃尔克的建议将允许对冲基金和其它规模较小的机构继续大胆投机，只要他们被允许“自生自灭”。
　　Critics argue that companies such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, which failed during the crisis, would not have been affected by the rule.
　　批评者认为，在危机期间破产的贝尔斯登(Bear Stearns)和雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)等公司将不会受到该规则的影响。