President Barack Obama has signed into law the biggest overhaul¹ of American financial regulation in decades.

奥巴马总统将数十年间美国金融监管界最大的详细检查签署成为法律。

The president said the law will ensure "that everyone follows the same set of rules, so that firms compete on price and quality, not tricks and traps（陷阱，圈套） ".

The law is a major victory for Mr Obama and the Democrats², who passed it with little Republican support after months of political wrangling³（争吵，争辩） .

It was vehemently⁴（激烈地） opposed by the financial services industry.

The law tightens⁵ mortgage and consumer lending rules, improves disclosure（揭露，揭发） for student borrowers and average investors⁶ and establishes a new consumer protection agency, among other provisions.

Almost every Congressional Republican opposed the bill, saying its new regulations would prove burdensome（繁重的，恼人的） to businesses trying to create jobs.

The bill "fails to address the root causes of the kind of crisis it's meant to prevent", Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said last week.

"This is a bill that creates a vast new and unaccountable bureaucracy that, if past experience is any guide, will lead to countless⁷ burdensome, unintended consequences for individuals and small businesses, that will constrict⁸（压缩） credit and stifle⁹（扼杀，窒息） growth in the middle of the worst economic period in memory."

But Mr Obama described the bill as a necessary measure to prevent future economic disaster, saying world's current economic troubles were caused in large part by "a breakdown¹⁰ in our financial system" and "a failure of responsibility from certain corners of Wall Street to the halls of power in Washington".

"Our financial system only works - our markets are only free - when there are clear rules and basic safeguards that prevent abuse, that check excess, that ensure that it is more profitable to play by the rules than to game the system," Mr Obama said at the White House.

In a note of irony¹¹, Obama signed the bill with great fanfare¹²（吹牛，炫耀） in the massive Ronald Reagan Building, named after a president who championed deregulation（违反规定，反常） .

To a burst of applause, the president said: "Because of this law, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill（负担费用） for Wall Street's mistakes."