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New York Stock Exchange CEO John Thain said New York would regain its footing against London, Hong Kong and other competitors in financial services once authorities act to scale back some of the more onerous provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley law.

Speaking at a panel discussion on risks in financial markets Friday at the World Economic Forum, Thain dismissed a story in the Financial Times in which a senior Lehman Brothers official said New York can only hope to staunch the bleeding.

“The United States has a great history of overreacting and then coming back,” Thain said.

U.S. financial executives and politicians have touted this week a report by McKinsey & Co that concluded London, Japan and other parts of Asia as growing in influence and jobs, while New York is on the decline. New York for the first time saw London outpace New York in initial public offerings in 2006, data show, amid a long decline in New York’s share of global IPO revenues.

MarketWatch: NYSE’s Thain: Business will come back