Barack Obama signs historic finance reform Bill

President Barack Obama yesterday signed into law the most sweeping reform of the US finance industry since the 1930s, promising US taxpayers would no longer get the Bill for Wall Street excess.

The legislation, which some Republicans have pledged to repeal, introduces new consumer protections, checks the power of big banks and cracks down on deceptive practices by credit card firms.

“Because of this law, the American people will never again be asked to foot the Bill for Wall Street’s mistakes. There will be no more tax-funded bailouts,” Mr Obama promised.

Seeking to restore public confidence in his economic leadership as unemployment flirts with double digits, Mr Obama said the Bill would repair the fractures and abuses of which the financial meltdown was born.

“It was a crisis born of a failure of responsibility from certain corners of Wall Street to the halls of power in Washington,” said Mr Obama, before adding the legacy-boosting law to his huge health care reform passed earlier this year.

“These reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history,” Mr Obama said, before signing the new law, passed by Congress last week.

“These protections will be enforced by a new consumer watchdog with just one job: looking out for people – not big banks, not lenders, not investment houses.”

The financial reform Bill finally squeezed through Congress with just a handful of Republican votes, as the opposition party continued with its policy of trying to block Mr Obama’s ambitious reform program at all costs.

Republican leaders yesterday condemned the new law, saying it would crimp growth, and handcuff the might of America‘s financial titans.

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele accused Mr Obama of trying to convince “sceptical Americans that he is doing everything he can to lower unemployment.”

“President Obama has signed into law a 2,300 page behemoth that will saddle the business community with innumerable unintended consequences, tighter credit, and countless job-killing regulations,” Mr Steele said.

Mr Obama, facing record low approval ratings in some polls, hopes the financial reforms will eventually become popular, but much of the Bill, like the health care Bill, is so complicated that it will not come into force for months.