Obama's war of words with Wall St banks
Barack Obama lashed out at the bailedout US banks that are now paying expensive Washington lobbyists to argue against root-and-branch reform of the financial system.
Fighting talk: The US President will take on bankers in talks.
Following a 90-minute meeting with Wall Street bosses, the US President said: 'If they are willing to fight common-sense consumer protections, that's a fight I'm willing to have.'
Obama has in recent days turned his fire on US banks, who are preparing to hand lavish bonuses to staff despite receiving hundreds of millions in taxpayer support.
'I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street,' the President said this weekend.
His scorching attack came as UK City Minister Lord (Paul) Myners revealed he had been 'frustrated with the level of resistance to reform we have seen from the industry'.
In a move aimed at deflecting anger over the banking 'supertax', Myners argued that it is up to bosses and major shareholders to decide whether bumper bonuses should be paid out this year.
The fallout from last week's 50% one-off hit on bonuses gathered force yesterday after broking giant Tullett Prebon revealed it will help workers emigrate to dodge the tax.
After being inundated with requests from staff asking for transfers to Switzerland, Tullett boss Terry Smith said he will now allow staff to re-locate to its overseas offices.
A spokesman for the inter-dealer broker said: 'Our main effort at the moment has to be to retain the brokers, because it is the brokers that generate our revenue.'
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