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Barack Obama earns '£300,000 an hour' with speeches to banks

President Barack Obama criticised Wall Street 'fat cats' before entering the White House in 2009: Getty Images
President Barack Obama criticised Wall Street 'fat cats' before entering the White House in 2009: Getty Images

Former president Barack Obama is reportedly earning up to $400,000 (£296,000) an hour for making speeches to investment banks.

The 56-year-old has been criticised by several Democratic senators who said they are “troubled” by the sums he is taking home.

Mr Obama is reported to have received the fee for delivering a lecture to clients of asset manager Northern Trust Corporation in New York in September.

This month he will take home another $400,000 for speaking to investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, according to Bloomberg News.

The firm’s CEO, Howard Lutnick said: “Everybody would like to come. Hopefully, we will really talk about the Affordable Care Act in interesting and nuanced ways, which I think is really cool.”

But before entering the White House in 2009, Mr Obama said that he had not run “to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street”.

His spokesman defended the lectures, telling Bloomberg News that he has only spoken “true to his values”.

The proceeds have also helped Mr Obama contribute $2 million to youth programmes in Chicago.

However, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told a local radio station: “I was troubled by that (fee for lectures)."