Obama urges bankers to 'help get economy back on track'

28 March 2009

US president Barack Obama met with the heads of the nation's largest banks at the White House on Friday, in his latest effort to find ways to revive the shattered economy.
 
They discuss in large the ongoing risks to the financial system and a new regulatory framework.

White House reported that the president was "very pleased", with the results.

Obama told the bankers that "getting the economy back on track will require an understanding that each of us must look beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other," the White House said.

Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman, said the discussions began with the need for banks to sell their toxic assets under a new government programme aimed at loosening up credit.

The talks then moved to new restrictions on the financial industry proposed by Obama's administration over the past week, and to executive compensation, Gibbs said.

''There was next a discussion about regulatory reform. And it is fair to say that they agreed on the need to update the framework of regulation and that being important,'' Gibbs said.