The bailed-out Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs has announced a record $4.95 billion quarterly profit. The amount exceeds the combined earnings of rival firms JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America. The announcement came as President Obama unveiled proposals to limit the size of large banks as well as the practice known as proprietary trading, in which commercial banks trade financial securities from their own commercial accounts.

President Obama: “We simply cannot accept a system in which hedge funds or private equity firms inside banks can place huge, risky bets that are subsidized by taxpayers and that could pose a conflict of interest. And we cannot accept a system in which shareholders make money on these operations if the bank wins, but taxpayers foot the bill if the bank loses.”

The regulations would restore some of the provisions lost with the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which had ensured the separation of commercial and investment banking. But critics warn the new regulations could still be weakened by a loophole on how banking activity is defined.