NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama warned financial firms on Monday to heed the lessons of Lehman Brothers' collapse a year ago and get behind a regulatory overhaul he wants Congress to pass this year.
Obama, who has focused most of his energy on healthcare reform in recent weeks, went to Wall Street to highlight another top priority of his administration -- updating financial rules to prevent another economic collapse.
While the economy and the financial system are showing signs of recovery, Obama said that was not an excuse to avoid reform.
"Normalcy cannot lead to complacency," he said at Federal Hall in the heart of Wall Street.
"Unfortunately, there are some in the financial industry who are misreading this moment. Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we're still recovering, they're choosing to ignore those lessons."
Lehman, once the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008, triggering a global financial crisis that also helped propel Obama to the presidency as Americans welcomed his cool response to the problem.
In a television interview later on Monday, Obama said he was not leaning toward a second round of economic stimulus, after the $787 billion package passed earlier this year.
"I have a strong inclination not to do it," he told CNBC. "We're monitoring the situation carefully. I think that most folks believe that we've now turned the corner where we might actually see some economic growth in the months to come.
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