Obama to Wall Street: Reform Coming

(Update includes spectator comments, scene on Wall Street)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- President Obama took his message to Wall Street on Monday, telling banks that they can expect his regulatory reform proposals to pass and that should cooperate with his objectives out of duty to taxpayers.

The audience responded warmly, but some attendees and locals are certainly gearing up for a fight.

"The reforms I have laid out will pass, and these rules will become law," Obama said Monday afternoon, at Federal Hall, just steps from the New York Stock Exchange.

The president's appearance comes nearly a year after regulators, some of whom remain in his administration, allowed Lehman Brothers to fail. Obama used the anniversary as an opportunity to push his agenda of hands-on regulation, with tighter capital rules, more prudent risk management, scaled-back executive pay and more transparency in the market for derivatives.

Obama also touched on the proposal that stands to get the most industry push-back, a consumer-protection agency that oversees the marketing and sales of financial products. He criticized banks for providing consumers with documents that are "designed to be unintelligible."

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.