|
US President Barack Obama, speaking one year after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s collapse, reiterated on Monday his plan to overhaul the financial regulation system and urged the Congress to pass the reform as soon as possible.
 |
|
US President Barack Obama speaks about the global financial crisis on Wall Street at Federal Hall in New York City September 14, 2009. [Xinhua]
|
At Federal Hall, which is located on Wall Street and just across the New York Stock Exchange, Obama urged the financial industry to support his new financial rules and avoid a return to the practices of excessive risk taking. Obama also called for global coordination in financial oversight and protecting economic recovery.
Lehman, the fourth largest US investment bank, filed for bankruptcy on Monday, September 15, 2008, which triggered a financial crisis that spread around the world and resulted in more than US$1.6 trillion in losses and write downs by financial institutions.
Addressing an audience consisting of his economic team, financial executives and consumer advocates, Obama said it was a "collective failure of responsibility in Washington, on Wall Street, and across America that led to the near-collapse of the financial system one year ago."
 |
|
An onlooker holds up a slogan outside the historic Federal Hall where US President Barack Obama is speaking in the heart of Wall Street in New York September 14, 2009. Obama, marking a year since Lehman Brothers collapsed, urged financial firms Monday not to fight regulatory reform and urged Congress to pass his proposals by the end of the year. [Xinhua]
|
The president warned Wall Street that they "cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall."
"While there were many who took out loans they knew they couldn't afford, there were also millions of Americans who signed contracts they didn't fully understand offered by lenders who didn't always tell the truth," Obama said.
Obama promised the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which his administration proposed to establish in June this year, will have the power to ensure that consumers get information that is clear and concise, and to prevent the worst kinds of abuses.
|
