Obama presses for financial sector reform bill

US President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to pass a bill that he says will prevent a repeat of the financial crisis that plunged the US and global economies into recession, the Voice of America reported yesterday.

Obama rejected Republican criticism of the proposed legislation, dubbed as the the biggest overhaul of the nation's financial system since the rules put in place during the Great Depression in the 1930s, saying he is absolutely confident that the bill will ''prevent bailouts.''

The president said it is unacceptable to expect taxpayers to pay for the failings of big financial firms.

''If there's one lesson that we've learned, it's that an unfettered market where people take huge risks and expect taxpayers to bail them out when things go sour is simply not acceptable,'' Obama said.

The proposed bill creates a new consumer protection agency with the power to stop abusive practices by the financial industry, including sudden credit card interest rate hikes, hidden bank fees and predatory loans.

The bill is also supposed to prevent future bailouts by giving the Treasury Department power to force failing banks into bankruptcy. It would create a $50-billion fund, financed by the banks themselves, to cover the bankruptcies.