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US President Barack Obama has pledged to veto any Wall Street reform bill lacking tough rules on opaque financial instruments as his administration moved to head off opposition to new rules.
Amid a deepening political row over the next big ticket item on his agenda, Obama said he would veto any bill that does not tackle derivatives, a class of asset implicated in sparking the financial crisis.
Obama delivered the veto threat at a meeting Friday of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.
"I will veto legislation that does not bring the derivatives market under control and some sort of regulatory framework assures that we don't have the same sort of crisis we have seen in the past," Obama said.
His comments came on a day when his cause received a significant boost from news that Goldman Sachs -- a storied Wall Street investment bank --was charged with fraud in the sale of subprime mortgage-based derivatives.
Republicans have warned that if the US government imposes tough new regulations on derivatives, firms that want to trade in the instruments will simply look elsewhere than the United States.
