Last Week in Words

MONDAY
"TD is actually losing money. … It's done to spread the message of debit and using debit."

— Sunil Kirpalani, a top debit card official at Toronto-Dominion Bank, on its recent cash-back rewards program.

TUESDAY
"But this was a tough deal with a lot of hair on it. It was always a bit of a head-scratcher. There were so many moving parts that needed to align just to save something that is really troubled."

— Jeff K. Davis, a longtime industry analyst, talking about Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin's announcing that its $400 million deal with Badger Anchor Holdings LLC had been mutually terminated.

WEDNESDAY
"The financial services industry came in whining about it, and literally in a basement office where the meeting was taking place, they lifted the cap, and look what happened."

— Rep. Jackie Speier, noting that the Securities and Exchange Commission had a 12-to-1 leverage cap in place until 2003.

THURSDAY
"These are not just apples and oranges, the questions of size and interconnectedness. They're apples and elephants."

— Dana Chasin, legislative and policy liaison at Americans for Financial Reform, in arguing that debate over the size of banks has eclipsed the larger risk of their interconnectedness.

FRIDAY
"You were either pulling the levers or were asleep at the switch. … As we try to recover from this calamity, I'm not so sure apologies are as important as assessment of responsibility."

— Phil Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, in complaining that former executives Charles Prince and Robert Rubin were seeking to dodge blame for Citigroup Inc.'s near-collapse.