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U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the financial regulation reform bill, the most ambitious rewrite of the country's financial-regulatory system since the Great Depression.

The Wall Street nameplate is pictured in New York, the United States, July 21, 2010. U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the financial regulation reform bill, the most ambitious rewrite of the country's financial-regulatory system since the Great Depression. [Shen Hong/Xinhua]

The 2,300-page legislation aims to curb Wall Street's high-risk practices blamed for the global economic meltdown of 2008, solve the systemic risk of the "too big to fail" problem among financial firms, and create a consumer protection agency to better protect Americans.

"These reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history," Obama said at the signing ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Building a few blocks from the White House. "These protections will be enforced by a new consumer watchdog with just one job: looking out for people -- not big banks, not lenders, not investment houses in the financial system."

Under the new law, an independent office called Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be established under the Federal Reserve to oversee financial products and services such as mortgages, credit cards and short-term loans.

"Reform will also rein in the abuse and excess that nearly brought down our financial system. It will finally bring transparency to the kinds of complex, risky transactions that helped trigger the financial crisis," said Obama.

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