Barnier launches EU bid to ban risky bank trades

``EU financial services commissioner Michel Barnier told reporters that so-called proprietary trading, where banks bet exclusively with their own money rather than customers, would be outlawed... The rule, which is similar to the so-called 'Volcker rule' which now applies in the US, would apply to around 30 of the bloc's 8,000 banks which together cover around 65 percent of the total banking assets in the EU.''