Obama says it is 'not true' that Wall Street regulation is too lax

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday defended his efforts to rein in Wall Street, telling Americans on both sides of the political spectrum that his administration cracked down on banks and trading firms after the financial crisis of 2007-2009.

"I want to emphasize this because it is popular in the media and the political discourse, both on the left and the right, to suggest that the crisis happened and nothing happened. That is not true," Obama told reporters, flanked by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and other top regulators.

He said regulators appear set by the end of the year to have achieved most of the goals he set out for the financial system in 2008, when he first took office, although he noted there was still work to do on regulating the shadow banking system, and on executive compensation.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)