Obama to banks: 'Rebuild our economy'

President Obama urged Wall Street bankers to make more loans and modify mortgages

Jennifer Liberto
CNNMoney.com senior writer

President Obama pressed Wall Street bankers at the White House on Monday, urging them to make more loans and modify mortgages to help taxpayers who propped their banks up with federal bailouts.

"My main message in today's meeting was very simple: America's banks received extraordinary assistance from American taxpayers to rebuild their industry," Obama said. "Now that they're back on their feet, we expect an extraordinary commitment from them to help rebuild our economy."

The president was expected to pressure the nation's top dozen bank chief executives to open up the lending spigots to help the economic recovery. He was also said to be urging execs to curb compensation, and to stop gouging customers with high credit card rates and hidden overdraft fees.

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