When Sheila Bair thinks about regrets during her tenure as Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., she zeroes in on one word: No.
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"I feel like I should have said 'no' more," Bair said Friday in a speech at George Washington University, one of her first public appearances since stepping down as FDIC chairman in July.
Bair said during her term banks often pushed for changes to regulations that made them too complex to understand and difficult for the public to support.
She told the audience that a good response to such requests is the approach touted by former First Lady Nancy Reagan in her well-known anti-drug campaign.
"I hate to sound like Nancy Reagan, but sometimes you just have to say 'no,'" Bair said. "Say no to drugs, say no to bank lobbyists."
