**President Barack Obama has told bankers to increase loans to small and medium-sized businesses.**The president was speaking after a meeting - which he described as “candid” - with executives of some of America’s top banks.
He said US banks had received extraordinary assistance and demanded they show extraordinary commitment to rebuild the US economy.
He also warned them not to block legislation for regulatory reform.
‘Fat cats’
The meeting with executives from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup came a day after the president said he had not run for office to be “helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street”.
But after Monday’s meeting, he struck a more conciliatory note, telling bankers he was looking forward to engaging with them further in the months and years ahead.
He stressed though that he was expecting them “to explore every responsible way to get our economy moving again”.
Many US citizens are angry that the banking industry was granted a $700bn (£430bn) bail-out.
The Obama administration has said the rescue was needed to stem the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and head off a potentially greater calamity in the broader economy.
Mr Obama criticised lobbyists for trying to stall his administration’s reform of the financial services sector. He told them it was in the interest of the industry to have modern rules.
Last week, the US House of Representatives approved its version of the financial regulatory reform legislation. But before the bill can become law, it will also need approval from the Senate.
It includes a plan to give regulators the power to dismantle businesses that threaten the economy in a way that ensures shareholders and unsecured creditors, not taxpayers, bear the losses.