Obama takes on banks, U.S. Chamber in push for financial reform

President Obama singled out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday as a special interest lining up to kill his efforts at protecting American consumers from unscrupulous financial services.

In the East Room of the White House, just hours after learning that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Obama aggressively criticized banks and financial services companies for unfair practices, and he urged Congress to act to pass reform creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

The agency, Obama said, would have "just one mission: to look out for the financial interests of ordinary Americans."

"It will be charged with setting clear rules of the road for consumers and banks, and it will be able to enforce those rules across the board," Obama said.

Banks and other financial services companies have come out forcefully against the idea of creating such an entity, drawing fierce criticism from Obama.

"In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending millions on an ad campaign to kill it," Obama said. "You might have seen some of these ads — the ones that claim local butchers and other small businesses will somehow be harmed by this agency. This is, of course, completely false — and we’ve made clear that only businesses that offer financial services would be affected by this agency.

"I don't know how many of your butchers are offering financial services."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a statement in anticipation of the president's remarks saying the proposed CFPA would "exacerbate the weaknesses of the current system" and "restrict access to credit."

The president was preceded at Friday's event by ordinary Americans who had been subjected to dramatic, unfair practices, leading the president to declare that the "patchwork system of regulations we have now has failed to prevent these abuses."

Obama said that "seven different federal agencies each having a role, there is too little accountability, too many loopholes and no single agency whose sole job it is to stand up for people" like those joining the president in the East Room.