Still, there's a long way to go.

"That's why we need strong rules of the road to guard against the kind of systemic risks we have seen," Obama said. "Yes, they must be developed in a way that does not stifle innovation and enterprise. And we want to work with the financial industry to achieve that end. But the old ways that led to the crisis cannot stand."

Obama pitched reforms that include the establishment of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to safeguard consumers in their dealings with the financial industry. That's a proposal that has already been criticized by some in finance as creating an innovation-stifling extra layer of government.

But, said Obama, such an agency is necessary to prevent abuses in the credit card and mortgage lending industries that can lead to consumers getting in over their head without understanding the financial product they're using.

"The Consumer Financial Protection Agency will have the power to ensure that consumers get information that is clear and concise and to prevent the worst kinds of abuses," he said.

The other key reform Obama pitched is the beefing up of the power of the Federal Reserve to oversee systemic risk throughout the economy, especially the kind of risk that could be piled up at institutions deemed "too big to fail."

"We'll also require these financial firms to meet stronger capital and liquidity requirements and observe greater constraints on their risky behavior," he said. And, he is proposing the creation of what's called resolution authority, to provide for the orderly breakup of giant financial firms that run into trouble and, "put an end to the idea that some firms are too big to fail."

Despite Obama's proposals, there are those who say not nearly enough has been done to reform Wall Street in the aftermath of last year's catastrophe. The surviving banks have gotten bigger. And the days of the outsized bonus are unlikely to be over.

That’s the way Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz sees it. He told Bloomberg the U.S. has failed to fix its too-big-to-fail banks. In fact, he says, “In the U.S. and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger. The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis. It’s an outrage,” especially “in the U.S. where we poured so much money into the banks,” Stiglitz told Bloomberg. “The administration seems very reluctant to do what is necessary. Yes they’ll do something, the question is: Will they do as much as required?”

Obama, though, said he would indeed push for meaningful reform—and do it this year. And he said he had the backing of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank to do just that.

"There will be those who defend the status quo," Obama said. "There will be those who argue we should do less or nothing at all. But to them I'd say only this: Do you believe the absence of sound regulation one year ago was good for the financial system?"