Backporch

January

Jamie Dimon
"We're getting killed in mortgages if you haven't noticed."

JPMorgan Chase's Chairman and CEO, discussing year-end results for 2011 with analysts during the bank's first conference call of 2012.

February

Lael Brainerd
"[B]anks have built thicker capital cushions and better liquidity buffers since our financial crisis, but our banking system still has material exposure to the core of Europe that could of course be impacted."

Treasury Department's under secretary for international affairs on the potential effects of the European debt crisis

March

Brian Moynihan
"This thing is healing. It will be slow, let's not kid ourselves, but it is healing."

Bank of America's CEO, on the mortgage market

April

Richard Davis
"The country's business community is much stronger than people think … We just need that tragger event and I don't see it in the near term, but surely it will happen because it is a cycle."

U.S. Bancorp's Chairman and CEO on his economic outlook after the first quarter

Robert Wilmers
"Because the Wall Street juggernaut has tarnished the reputation of banking as a whole, it is difficult if not impossible for bankers—who once were viewed as thoughtful stewards of the economy—to plausibly play a leadership role today."

Chairman and CEO, M&T Bank Corp.

May

Dan O'Malley
"It's such a knife fight to acquire customers right now."

CEO of the online banking startup PerkStreet, speaking about credit card issuers

June

John Owen
"It's going to be very hard for any of us to serve the underserved if you don't have a loan product. … There's a huge need for liquidity."

Regions Financial's head of business lines, defending his company's payday lending business

July

Bart Chilton
"Do we need Dodd-Frank? That's a clown question, bro."

Democratic member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, using a phrase popularized by Washington Nationals rookie outfielder Bryce Harper

August

Corey Coughlin
"The feeling we get, frankly, is the FDIC is quite disappointed that we survived. You'd think the regulators are working on some kind of unofficial law that they must reduce the number of banks."

President and CEO of the $70 million-asset ProFinancial Holdings in Tallahassee, Fla., on its rocky regulatory relationship despite a recapitalization and management shakeup

September

Steve Clinton
"[B]anks have built thicker capital cushions and better liquidity buffers since our financial crisis, but our banking system still has material exposure to the core of Europe that could of course be impacted."

President of Capital Market Securities, after representing a small Wisconsin bank that broke itself in two and sold each piece to a different buyer

October

Malcolm Jones
"Regulators are pushing for capital at every turn you make, and I'm not sure where the end is."