The U.S. economy had picked up in the last few months, but America was still far from a satisfactory level of activity given the financial reform a work half done, Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman from 1979 to 1987, said on Wednesday.

"There's still a long way ahead of us before we can claim anything like success," said Volcker. He also mentioned that the rising consumption was partly based on lower savings, housing and commercial construction looked like remaining flat for at least a year, and business investment had come up from a low level, but it was still lagging well under previous peaks.

As of financial reform, some important areas hadn't really been touched, such as the mortgage market, credit rating agencies and money market funds, Volcker said in Washington D.C. at a high- ranking economic conference organized by the Atlantic magazine.

"Even in those areas where an international consensus seems to exist, it is difficult to actually implement new capital and liquidity standards," he said, adding "Important parts of the Dodd- Frank legislation need to be nailed down," including those " dealing with too big to fail and the Volcker rule."

The Volcker rule, named after himself, aims to ban banks from proprietary trading while allowing them to continue short-term trades for hedging or market-making. It also would limit banks' investments in private-equity and hedge funds.

But the financial industry is featured in the trade-off between risk and profitability. Any regulation aimed to enhance risk management is likely to provoke criticism from Wall Street players.

Required by the Dodd-Frank Act, the overhaul of financial regulation enacted by President Barack Obama in July 2010, the rule must be in place by July 21.