US President Donald Trump is telling a group of community bankers that he will roll back regulations imposed on their industry after the nation's 2008 financial crisis.

Trump addressed the Independent Community Bankers Association at the White House on Monday.

The bankers all wore Trump inspired red baseball caps that say, "Make Community Banking Great Again!"

Trump said the current law, known as the Dodd-Frank Act, is "damaging" and his administration is working to reform it.

He says his friends who are community bankers "have gone through hell" because of stringent regulations.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank law clamped down on certain banking practices and expanded consumer protections to try to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial meltdown

Washington DC - 1 May 2017

1. Vice President Mike Pence introduces US President Donald Trump, pull out to wide shot as crowd stands and applauds

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, US President:

"I have friends that are community bankers and they've gone through hell over the last, long period of time. It's really a much longer period of time than people would understand. I've also directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to review damaging Dodd-Frank regulations that encourage risky behaviour from Wall Street. Everybody knows what that means. We're also working to achieve tax reform and dramatically lower taxes on businesses and the middle class. We're proposing one of the largest tax cuts in history, even larger than that of President Ronald Reagan. Our tax cut is bigger, bigger. My administration is committed to working with each and every one of you to help Americans achieve their financial dreams so that, look, we're all here for the same thing. We have a statement, it's really, I like it much better than even your hat, it says 'Make America Great Again,' and that's what we all want, we want to all make it great again and that's what's going to happen so, I want to thank you all for being here. Very special people, you do a very, very special job and the community really understands it. I know community bankers are the most popular person in their community. They've built communities and they've really been so badly hurt over the last number of years. So we're going to change that, we're going to change regulations, we're gonna give the incentives back and you're going to grow and thrive and prosper and maybe even more importantly, you're going to have businesses all over the country growing and thriving and prospering. So I want to thank you for being here. It's a great honour. And you will see things happening like you've never seen before, thank you very much, thank you, thank you." (Crowd stands up and applauds)