Obama: I didn't become president to help out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street

By David Gardner

President Obama gave Wall Street bosses a dressing down last night as he demanded more help to get America's economy back on its feet.

The tense White House meeting came after Mr Obama complained that he didn’t run for office ‘to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers'.

The president called top U.S. chief executives to Washington because he was unhappy they weren’t doing enough to boost lending for small businesses or throwing their weight behind the administration’s efforts to tighten up Wall Street regulations.

'We expect results': President Barack Obama gave Wall Street bosses a dressing down during a meeting at the White House last night

He made it clear he expected more from the banks after the government made ‘difficult and, frankly, unpopular steps to pull them back from the brink’ of the ‘predicament largely of their own making’ a year ago.

‘We expect some results,’ he said. ‘They certainly could be doing more. We expect them to explore every responsible way to help get our economy moving again.'

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Obama tried to play down any bad feelings by saying he wasn’t seeking to ‘vilify’ anybody.

But he said the banks received ‘extraordinary help’ from taxpayers and he insisted on an ‘extraordinary commitment’ from them in return.

The one-and-a-half-hour long financial summit came after Citigroup became the latest bank to try and wrestle free from U.S. government control by repaying the £12billion in bailout money it received at the height of the financial meltdown.

Mr Obama said that meant the U.S. Treasury had collected 60 per cent of the handout, given to keep the banks in business.

‘We are determined to recoup every last dime for the American taxpayer,’ he added.


Annoyed: Barack Obama, centre, with wife Michelle, right, and singer Mary J Blige, left, during the Christmas in Washington Celebration at the National Building Museum in Washington last night

Fog and bad weather meant some of the biggest names, including Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, John Mack of Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup’s Richard Parsons, were patched through on a conference call.

With his public approval rating slipping below 50 per cent, Mr Obama is said to be angry that he is taking the flak for its support of the £430billion bailout programme launched by his predecessor, George Bush's administration.

His 'fat cat' jibe came in a TV interview screened on the eve of yesterday's meeting.

Mr Obama said the bankers agreed to look for news ways to promote lending and claimed to back the administration’s regulatory overhaul on Wall Street.

‘Around the table all the financial industry executives said they supported financial regulatory reform,’ he said.

But he claimed there was ‘a gap’ in what the bankers told him during the meeting and what he was hearing from small business owners and lobbyists on Capitol Hill who opposed his proposed legislation to bring Wall Street into line.

He said the bankers had a ‘greater obligation’ to rein in excesses like big bonus payouts.

And he said he asked them to go back and take ‘a third and a fourth look’ to find ways of freeing up credit to allow small businesses to grow.

Bancorp chief executive Richard Davis said afterwards that he agreed with the president that there had been a 'disconnect' between what the banks chiefs and lobbyists were saying about the planned financial reforms.

He admitted the banks hadn't done a good enough job in articulating their support.


source: dailymail