Fresh from his victory on healthcare, President Barack Obama will travel to New York today to argue for a financial regulatory overhaul in a speech that White House officials hope will define the closing stages of Washington's most expensive lobbying battle in years.

Mr Obama, who first called for Wall Street to be reined back in a speech he gave as a presidential candidate at the same venue two years ago, will frame the bill as a choice between common sense financial reforms and special interests working on behalf of the big banks.

Proponents of more radical change say Mr Obama has an opportunity to exploit popular antipathy against Wall Street to strengthen the existing Democratic bill, which they argue does not go far enough to restructure America's bloated financial sector. The banks, meanwhile, are gearing up to spend millions of dollars in the next few weeks in a last-ditch attempt to remove clauses that would eat into profitability.