(AP) - President Barack Obama is telling Wall Street totake steps on its own to rebuild trust with the public, and notwait for Congress to legislate the tighter oversight of theindustry he is pushing.

Obama says many of the firms now seeing improvement in theirfinances owe a debt to the American people, who financed a $700billion bailout last year.

He says Wall Street need not wait for changes he outlined in aspeech to become law.

Obama says the industry should start using plain language withconsumers and let shareholders vote on senior executive bonuses. Healso says firms don't have to wait to overhaul their pay systems toreward employees for long-term performance instead of short-termgains.