WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday banks must make an "extraordinary commitment" to help the country recover from a crisis that was partly their fault.
Speaking at the White House following a meeting with the leaders of the nation's biggest financial institutions, Obama said that after taxpayers provided massive bailouts, banks are obliged to open up the lending spigot to "creditworthy" small- and medium-sized businesses who complain they're being shut out for loans.
Noting that the financial meltdown and the bank bailouts it required was "a predicament largely of their own making, oftentimes because they failed to manage risk properly," the president said, "(My) main message in today's meeting was very simple: That America's banks received extraordinary assistance from American taxpayers to rebuild their industry -- and now that they're back on their feet, we expect an extraordinary commitment from them to help rebuild our economy."
Obama said banks needed to give creditworthy businesses "third and fourth" looks for loans, adding, "Given the difficulty businesspeople are having as lending has declined, and given the exceptional assistance banks received to get them through a difficult time, we expect them to explore every responsible way to help get our economy moving again."
