Obama exhorts bankers to lend liberally to discharge bail-out obligations

President Barack Obama yesterday exhorted top bankers to explore ''every responsible way'' to increase lending, considering their obligation to help after having being bailed out by taxpayers.

He called on them to ''take a third and fourth look'' at their small-business lending.

US Bancorp CEO Richard Davis told the group assembled at the White House that his bank would reconsider every loan it rejected.

Davis also said he would present the idea to other members of the Financial Services Roundtable- a group that represents the largest financial companies and of which Davis will become chairman.

After the more than an hour-long meeting with the executives, Obama, in a statement said he reminded them that the financial crisis that brought the US banking system to the brink of collapse had largely been 'of their own making.'

He also urged the executives - both in private and in public to back an overhaul of the nation's financial industry.