Occupy the SEC — a working group of the New York General Assembly made up of former operatives in the financial industry — submitted a 325-page letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week. The letter commented on the proposed implementation and provision of the Volcker Rule on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank legislation, the Obama administration’s response to the financial crisis and bailouts of the late 2000s, enacts financial regulatory reform.

The Volcker Rule is a proposed section of this law that restricts U.S. banks and financial firms from making very risky investments. It is designed to protect the bank customers’ deposits. Through the letter, Occupy the SEC aims to make sure this protection is safeguarded by addressing loopholes in the Volcker rule.

“If the regulators write a final rule that is faithful to the statutes of intent and congressional intent, it’s going to be a big step in the right direction,” Eric Taylor, an author of the letter, said.

Akshat Tewary, another author, said the letter is changing the dynamics of the Occupy Movement.

“It’s a small step forward in the entire projectory of Occupy,” Tewary said. “It debunks the theory that Occupy is ineffectual or has no specific goals. We have concrete proposals and recommendations.”

Tewary added that this was a unique opportunity to initiate and address the issues that Occupiers are concerned about.

“The purpose is to capture the energy we saw among the protesters at Occupy,” Tewary said.

Occupy the SEC began working on the letter in late October, according to Aaron Bornstein, an GSAS student and Occupy activist.

“They decided to sit down with an enormous piece of legislation that had been intentionally obfuscated and weakened so as to ensure business as usual, and methodically design a better way of doing business … against an army of thousands of thousand-dollar-an-hour lawyers,” Bornstein said. “You have to be a little crazy to do that, and a lot inspired.”

Richard Epstein, an NYU law professor with a focus on business in public policy, said the letter will be a significant contribution to the debate on financial reform.

“I think that it is a turn for the better that OWS chose to submit [the letter],” Epstein said. “The central question is the level of leverage and separation for risky financial assets. Everyone thinks that some middle solution is appropriate but there is less agreement on how much.”

But the real stakeholders in this legislation may be members of the public, whose bank accounts may be jeopardized if the Volcker Rule is not properly scrutinized these next few months.

NYU freshman Kimberly Chan said she is glad community members are looking at the law and not just legislatures.

“You can never be too careful when it comes to handling others’ money,” she said. “The risk isn’t worth it.”