MONDAY
"It's a tool that both buyers and sellers should be very mindful of and willing to use."
— Michael Reed, a DLA Piper partner, advocating the use of provisions in bank deals that cut the price if the seller's delinquencies rise. TUESDAY
"If a bank had a track record of using loans as loss-leaders and never getting other business out of it, and the regulators could see that returns were not materializing, they would clamp down on it."
— David Gibbons, a managing director at Promontory Financial, on regulators' tolerance for the practice of offering discounted credits to attract other business. WEDNESDAY
"There is a lot of informal decision-making, and it is fine when times are good, but when the economy turns and credit performance turns, it tends to expose that there were latent weaknesses all along."
— E. Wayne Rushton, a managing director at Promontory Financial, describing the perils of weak oversight at some community banks. THURSDAY
"Go to people who make the decision, and that's not lobbyists. … Go to the Steering Committee and ask them what they're thinking. As a matter of fact, go to somebody like who you all keep naming in these articles — go to them and ask them who's going to be chairman."
— Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, disabusing any notion that he might not be named House Financial Services Committee chairman if the GOP wins control in the midterm elections. FRIDAY
"We don't have population growth in any of our markets. We're … growing from taking share from other banks."
— Mary W. Navarro, retail and business banking director at Huntington, justifying the extra money needed to extend branch hours.
