Obama calls for reforms

Washington: President Barack Obama said on Monday the huge trading loss at JPMorgan Chase & Co illustrated the need for Wall Street reform and warned the same kind of error at a less stable bank may have required government intervention. "JPMorgan is one of the best managed banks there is. Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got and they still lost $2 billion [Dh7.3 billion] and counting," Obama said on ABC's The View, according to a transcript released by the network.

"We don't know all the details. It's going to be investigated, but this is why we passed Wall Street reform," Obama said.

The programme was taped on Monday in New York and was due to be aired yesterday. Wall Street reform was one of Obama's signature domestic policy achievements, but he has faced opposition in trying to implement and enforce it.

"The whole point was, even if you're smart, you can make mistakes and since these banks are insured, backed up by taxpayers, we don't want you taking risks where eventually we might end up having to bail you out again, because we've done that, been there, didn't like it," Obama said.