President Obama Delivers Remarks at Consumer Financial Protection Event

SPEAKER: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

[*] OBAMA: Good afternoon. For the last several months, this administration has been working with Congress to reform an outdated system of financial regulations and lax oversight that helped lead to last year's crisis. And I want to thank Chairman Chris Dodd, Chairman Barney Frank, and Senator Richard Shelby for the leadership and enthusiasm they've shown throughout this process.

Part of our reform effort involves putting in place new safeguards that would help prevent the irresponsibility and recklessness of a few from wreaking havoc on our entire financial system. We want to close gaps in regulation, eliminate overlap, and set rules of the road for Wall Street that make fair dealing and honest competition the only way for financial firms to win and prosper.

But a central part of our reform effort is also aimed at protecting Americans who buy financial products and services every day - from mortgages to credit cards. It's true that the crisis we faced was caused in part by people who took on too much debt and took out loans they couldn't afford. But my concern are the millions of Americans who behaved responsibly and yet still found themselves in jeopardy because of the predatory practices of some in the financial industry. These are folks who signed contracts they didn't always understand offered by lenders who didn't always tell the truth. They were lured in by promises of low payments, and never made aware of the fine print and hidden fees.

Secretary Geithner and I just finished meeting with some of these Americans who've joined us here today. You already heard from Patricia, who was forced to pay thousands of dollars in interest on a $550 payday loan. We also heard from Susan Chapman, who had excellent payment history until she was contacted by a broker who told her that she could lower the monthly payments on her mortgage. Instead, the loan they sold her ended up increasing her debt, and her principal has now gone up $20,000.

We talked with Karen Cappuccio [cap-PU-chee-o], who is still fending off foreclosure because her mortgage company duped her into taking out two expensive loans when they had originally promised her one low, fixed rate mortgage. We talked with Maxine Given, whose bank hit her with four separate overdraft charges because of one mortgage check that they ended up rejecting the very next day. And we talked with Andrew Giordano, whose bank made a mistake that cost him over $800 in overdraft fees. And when he caught their mistake, the bank only refunded part of the fees.