This past week produced three important developments in the area of financial regulatory reform:

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Bloomberg News is reporting that the EU finance ministers will resist President Obama’s latest proposal to rein in Wall Street, the so-called “Volcker Rule,” which would limit the growth and proprietary trading operations of the nation’s banks.

“The finance officials gathering in Brussels will express ‘their concern that the application of the Volcker Rule in the EU may not be consistent with the current principles of the internal market and universal banking,’ the document obtained by Bloomberg News said. ‘Any policy choice should avoid pushing risks to other parts of the financial system.'"

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Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson penned an Op-ed in the New York Times this week, titled “How to Watch the Banks,” where he stressed the need for Congress to pass financial regulatory reform.

“Congress must pass financial regulatory reform. Delays are creating uncertainty, undermining the ability of financial institutions to increase lending to the businesses of all sizes that want to invest and fuel our recovery…  First, we must create a systemic risk regulator to monitor the stability of the markets and to restrain or end any activity at any financial firm that threatens the broader market. Second, the government must have resolution authority to impose an orderly liquidation on any failing financial institution to minimize its impact on the rest of the system.”

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Blackstone Group Co-founder Stephen Schwarzman argues in a Washington Post Op-ed titled “Lawmakers' Rush to Punish Banks Threatens Recovery” that political hostility towards the financial sector, and uncertainty regarding regulatory reform, are undermining economic recovery.

“This country, of course, needs fundamental reform of our financial regulatory system, as I, and many other financial institution executives, have publicly advocated for a considerable period. But we are debating this hugely important issue in an inflammatory political atmosphere in which key participants seem determined to single out the banks for special retribution in reaction to the financial crisis.”