President Barack Obama went to Wall Street to tell the nation's bankers that they “owe a debt to the American people” and must stop getting in the way of reforms needed to prevent a repeat of the credit crisis.

Exactly a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers sparked a full-blown financial panic, the President warned that a “return to normalcy cannot lead to complacency”, and he demanded banks curb excessive bonuses and submit to a raft of new regulations.

He attacked the purveyors of “revisionist histories, or selective memory, who don't seem to recall what we went through last year” and added: “To them I'd say only this: do you believe the absence of sound regulation one year ago was good for the financial system? Do you believe the resulting decline in markets and wealth and employment was good for the economy?”

The President adopted a lecturing tone in front of representatives of the finance industry at the Federal Hall building, a stone's throw from the New York Stock Exchange. And well he might.

One year on the government still owns several giant financial institutions (including the insurer AIG and mortgage finance houses Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and holds powerful stakes in many of the biggest US banks.

The financial system was brought to the brink of collapse after years of profligate lending ended suddenly in a failure of confidence and panic, only to be rescued by trillions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts.

But the President's appearance in the heart of the US financial capital was not just meant to vent some of the public fury against Wall Street, which has been lobbying against greater regulation with increasing force. Amidst the bruising battle over healthcare reform, Mr Obama is attempting to shift focus to achievements in steering the financial system away from the brink.

“Many of the firms that are now returning to prosperity owe a debt to the American people,” he said. “Though they were not the cause of the crisis, taxpayers through their government took extraordinary action to stabilise the industry. It is neither right nor responsible after you've recovered with the help of your government to shirk your obligation to the goal of wider recovery.”

On the floor of the Stock Exchange, traders groaned at parts of the speech, but there was applause as he promised reforms that “reflect the painful but important lessons we've learned”.