"The basic message is we're all in this thing together," Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) Chief Executive John Stumpf told reporters after the meeting, with other bank executives at his side.
The bankers' comments about the meeting were overshadowed by their statements about business conditions in March.
JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500) Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said "March was a little rough" and Bank of America's Ken Lewis said "trading book for March was not as good" as it was the first two months of the year, pushing bank stocks and the overall market lower.
The White House meeting came ahead of next week's G20 summit, at which Obama is expected to pitch his plans to rescue the recession-hit U.S. economy to fellow world leaders.
Obama stressed the importance of dealing with toxic assets, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
"The president opened up by talking about the importance of dealing with toxic assets and getting banks lending again," Gibbs told a briefing. "It's fair to say that they agreed on the need to update the framework of regulations."
Top bankers - whom Obama has chastised for taking big bonuses while urging them to get credit flowing - said not everything had been agreed.
0:00/5:12Risks of new bank planDimon said Obama asked a lot of questions but did not ask them to stop discussing an early return of government bailout funds.
Dimon told CNBC after the meeting "we know mistakes were made" around executive compensation - an issue which has spurred a wave of public fury across the United States, and Bank of America's (BAC, Fortune 500) Lewis said everyone understood the "golden age" of bank compensation was over.
Long-term goalsSenior administration officials had said Obama's message going into the meeting would be to tell the institutions largely blamed for sparking the U.S. economic crisis to focus on long-term goals to help the country.
"Our future is inextricably linked to these financial institutions and theirs is to ours, and so it makes all the sense in the world that they come together and have this conversation," said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president.
The meeting comes just days after the U.S. Treasury Department provided details on a government plan to cleanse banks' balance sheets of up to $1 trillion in distressed loans and securities - a plan that the banks will have to support in order for it to work.
0:00/4:47Regulators ask for more powerThe Obama administration also announced on Thursday its plan to rewrite financial rules, including creating a single regulator to monitor any firm whose failure could threaten the financial system.
About 15 chief executives attended, according to the White House, including Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Vikram Pandit of Citigroup (C, Fortune 500).
Others on the list included chiefs from Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), Bank of New York Mellon (BK, Fortune 500), Northern Trust (NTRS, Fortune 500), PNC Financial (PNC, Fortune 500), State Street (STT, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), American Bankers Association and Independent Community Bankers.
Even in slump, firms find way for bonuses
Obama Week 10: Rescue gains steam
Aide defends White House on economy
Health reform czar is a remarkable Tennessean
