The Volcker Rule, which would restrict banks from trading their own money for profits in capital markets, is already changing Wall Street behavior even though the rule isn’t in effect yet, said the rule’s architect, Paul Volcker.

Regulators plan to implement the rule next year, but according to Volcker, banks are already scaling pack so-called proprietary trading, which critics say poses systemic risk to the financial system should losses incur.

“Banks have stopped their straightforward proprietary trading operation, and they’ve largely cut back on their hedge funds and equity funds,” Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, told CNBC.

“And as the managements and the directors finally understand that ‘yes, this is a law that has to be followed,’ they’ll be able to manage their trading desks in what I think is an effective way.”

The rule came bundled in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law and was originally slated to take effect this year.

Just get it done, Volcker said.

“Whether the [final] regulation has to be as complicated, I don’t know what the new regulation will be,” Volcker told the network.

“But I don’t think it needs to be as complicated as our initial regulation, which got a big reaction.”

Some regulators say implementing the Volcker Rule should quell calls to resuscitate the Glass-Steagall Act, which prevented financial institutions from running investment banks and commercial banks that manage government-insured deposits under one roof.

Glass-Steagall was passed in the Great Depression but repealed under the Clinton administration, a move that many say allowed banks to grow so large they pose systemic risk should they run into trouble.

Having the Volcker Rule in effect would eliminate the need to break up big banks.

“There is a troublesome duplexity between having two different visions” at one firm, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner Bart Chilton told Bloomberg.

“Volcker for me will quit that troublesome duplexity. I don’t know if we need to go back to Glass-Steagall.”

Editor's Note: The Final Turning Predicted for America. See Proof.

© 2012 Moneynews. All rights reserved.