President Obama
"We are looking to see if there are possibilities to cut some of the red tape. I think, fairly, [community bankers] just want to make sure that as we regulate better, that doesn't automatically mean that we're just loading them up with more paperwork and more burdens."
— Speaking after a White House meeting with community bankers
•
Carl Tannenbaum
"We've got so much cash sloshing around my building that they have a palette of shrink-wrapped $100 bills in the conference room next to my office."
— Head of the risk-specialist division, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, noting that many banks are more comfortable parking excess cash at Federal Reserve banks than lending it out.
•
Richard Davis
"At the end of a recession or the beginning of a recovery, the very people who need the loan the most are the ones under the most stressed circumstances. We need to find ways to make loans to qualified people."
— Chairman and CEO, U.S. Bancorp
•
Herb Held
"Stock prices of banks that have acquired substantial institutions from us...[have] gone up immediately. We would like a little bit of that benefit back for us."
— Associate director of resolution strategy at the FDIC, on getting a higher price for failed banks based on the buyer's stock performance
•
Arne Duncan
"If the student defaults, my department pays back the loan - plus the interest owed. The [Federal Family Education Loan] program, in short, is a great deal for bankers but a terrible one for taxpayers."
— Secretary of Education, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined, "Banks Don't Belong in the Student Loan Business"
•
Dan Mica
"If Congress and the Obama administration backed this legislation, credit unions could do more to help solve the small business credit crunch without adding to the federal debt."
— CEO of Credit Union National Association, in a letter to The Washington Post, arguing in favor of a bill that would permit credit unions to make more business loans