He made his remarks on the White House lawn as he headed to California for two days away from the capital, where the crescendo of public ire over the payments is rising.
Obama insisted he and his administration were not responsible for creating the "mess" at American International Group (AIG), whose insurance of questionable financial instruments has contributed to the global meltdown.
But he added: "Ultimately, I'm responsible. The buck stops with me. And my goal is to make sure that we never put ourselves in this kind of position again."
He said that the "culture" of "excess greed, excess compensation, excess risk" has to change and pledged regulatory reform to put more controls on the finance industry.
He said the government was working to set up a "resolution authority" similar to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which regulates banks and insures bank deposits.
Answering a reporter's question, Obama said it was not his intention to "quell anger" of the public.
"I think people are right to be angry. I'm angry," he said. "What I want us to do, though, is channel our anger in a constructive way."
Source: Indo-Asian News Service, updated on http://news.in.msn.com
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