WASHINGTON: Some of the world's largest financial firms are urging a top US lawmaker not to pursue big bank break-up legislation, an idea attracting interest in Congress and causing alarm on Wall Street.

The Financial Services Forum, a lobbying group for CEOs of firms including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, said empowering regulators to break up "too-big-to-fail" banks "could lead to long-term damage to the US economy".

The forum made its comments in a letter to US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, that was obtained by Reuters a day before Frank's panel resumes work on financial reform legislation.