国际英语新闻：Obama pushes for financial regulation reform on Lehman collapse anniversary

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking one year after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s collapse, reiterated on Monday his plan to overhaul the financial regulation system and urged the Congress to pass the reform as soon as possible.

    At Federal Hall, which is located on Wall Street and just across the New York Stock Exchange, Obama urged the financial industry to support his new financial rules and avoid a return to the practices of excessive risk taking. Obama also called for global coordination in financial oversight and protecting economic recovery.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the global financial crisis on Wall Street at Federal Hall in New York City Sept. 14, 2009

Lehman, the fourth largest U.S. investment bank, filed for bankruptcy on Monday, Sept. 15, 2008, which triggered a financial crisis that spread around the world and resulted in more than 1.6 trillion U.S. dollars in losses and write downs by financial institutions.

    Addressing an audience consisting of his economic team, financial executives and consumer advocates, Obama said it was a "collective failure of responsibility in Washington, on Wall Street, and across America that led to the near-collapse of the financial system one year ago."

An onlooker holds up a slogan outside the historic Federal Hall where U.S. President Barack Obama is speaking in the heart of Wall Street in New York Sept. 14, 2009. Obama, marking a year since Lehman Brothers collapsed, urged financial firms Monday not to fight regulatory reform and urged Congress to pass his proposals by the end of the year