Obama Presses Reform on Wary Wall Street

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- President Obama is taking his message to Wall Street on Monday, and while he is sure to have a captive audience, many of the regulatory reform proposals he will advocate are being fought tooth and nail by the locals.

The president will appear at Federal Hall, nearly a year after regulators, some of whom remain in his administration, allowed Lehman Brothers to fail. Obama is likely to use the anniversary as an opportunity to push his agenda of hands-on regulation. He is pushing tighter oversight of several factors that helped push Lehman under ground.

Obama's proposals have promoted tighter restrictions on capital levels, risk management and executive pay, as well as more transparency in the market for derivatives. His team also would like to create a consumer-protection agency that oversees the marketing and sales of financial products.

Wall Street has fought most of those ideas, adopted some of its own accord, and found routes around others.

Banks already have begun adjusting pay packages to avoid scrutiny by, for instance, raising the base salary of executives rather than giving stock and performance-based awards, as bonuses have become a thorny issue. Now in cash-preservation mode, they are already gearing up for the implementation of stronger capital rules that the G-20 group of nations may adopt within a few years.

They also agreed to provide information about most derivatives trades. If banks provide such data collectively, it won't hurt the competitive edge of anyone, and perhaps prevent the rout that brought American International Group(AIG Quote) down.