US President Barack Obama was to court support from banking executives later today in an effort to transcend the furious standoff between the public and the industry over bailouts and bonuses, according to dpa. The meeting at the White House was to include chief executive officers Vikram Pandit of Citigroup Inc, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. A total of 15 executives from the nation's largest banks were to join the meeting, Bloomberg financial news service reported. "This is about our duty to do everything we can to support a robust and sustained economic expansion and the reality that the country's major financial institutions have a major role to play," Lawrence Summers, Obama's top economic adviser, said. Over the past week, Obama's administration has launched detailed plans to stabilize financial markets, including a huge programme to mop up toxic assets that are at the root of the worsening recession. US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner also signalled to Congress his plans to create more oversight for the non-banking financial industry - hedge funds, private equity firms and derivatives markets - that created shaky investment instruments in the toxic assets.
