US President Barack Obama said Monday that strong regulations implemented after the last financial crisis have strengthened the banks and the economy, rejecting criticism saying that "nothing has changed" in the country.
"The laws that we issued in the past worked," said the president during a meeting of financial regulators in Washington.
Speaking eight years after the collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns sparking a devastating crisis in the markets, Obama said the main threat to financial stability are congressmen trying to push back the vast legislation Dodd-Frank which forced the banks to exhibit improved behavior.
The collapse of Bear Stearns "was a key moment in an economic spiral that eventually cost Americans millions in real estate securities, pensions, jobs, savings. It was devastating, "Obama said.
"And it is a useful reminder of what happens when you have a lax legislation on Wall Street (...) it is eventually passed on to Main Street," he said referring to the street that houses the major New York banks.
Since then, Dodd-Frank regulatory reforms forced banks and other financial institutions to strengthen capital and depose their riskiest practices, yet not preventing the growth of these institutions, nor the economy, Obama said.
"I want to stress this because it has spread in the press, in political discourse - both on the left and his right, the belief that the crisis has passed and nothing has changed. This is not true, "said the US president.
Obama, in the last year of a presidency that began in January 2009 in the depths of a recession, defended his achievements against presidential candidates to succeed him, some of whom say the Dodd-Frank reforms should come to an end , while others argue that missed transcendent results.
"Because of the Wall Street reform our financial system is safer and stronger than before the crisis (...) we rebuild better and stronger rebuild," he argued.
Finally, Obama said more work needs to be done, especially on cybersecurity, where the industry is facing "increasing vulnerability".