US President Barack Obama urged the US Congress to pass the regulatory reform bill which was submitted earlier this year during his speech on one-year anniversary of the financial storm on Monday.

The president 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."

Obama said the government must "live up to the responsibilities on financial reform." Defending himself against those who argue there should be no or less government intervention, Obama asked the audience:" Do you believe that the absence of sound regulation one year ago was good for the financial system? Do you believe the resulting decline in markets and wealth and employment was good for the economy? Or the American people?"

Touting himself as "a strong believer in the power of the free market," Obama said it is important to note that the very absence of common-sense regulations able to keep up with a fast-paced financial sector is what created the need for that extraordinary intervention.

"The lack of sensible rules of the road, so often opposed by those who claim to speak for the free market, led to a rescue far more intrusive than anything any of us, Democrat or Republican, progressive or conservative, would have proposed or predicted," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2009)