Back Porch

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

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