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Last Week in Words

April 23, 2010, 7:23 p.m. EDT 1 Min Read

MONDAY
"About the only time OTS showed backbone was against another agency's moving, in your view, into your turf."

— Sen. Carl Levin to former OTS Director John Reich, as he accused the agency of gross incompetence in regulating Washington Mutual when it blocked the FDIC from seeking certain information. TUESDAY
"I'm always willing to be the only Republican if it is the right thing, and it is important to do the right thing in this."

— Sen. Olympia Snowe, hinting she would support Sen. Chris Dodd's regulatory reform legislation if certain changes are made. WEDNESDAY
" Instead of trying to use rewards, it's easier to scare somebody into using signature. … Rewards and punishment are the two drivers of human behavior."

— Adil Moussa, an analyst at Aite Group in Boston, on JPMorgan Chase's counterintuitively encouraging customers to use their signature, on safety grounds, rather than their PIN, when making debit card purchases; signature debit is considerably more lucrative for a debit card issuer but is considered much less secure. THURSDAY
"Over the course of the last four to five years, we have seen tremendous progress in physical merchants actually shoring up their systems. When you shore up one part of the payment chain, the fraud will migrate to another part."

— Gerry Sweeney, Visa Inc.'s head of global e-commerce and authentication, explaining why the card company is focusing more antifraud effort on e-commerce. FRIDAY
"We are disappointed, but it was a brilliant move on the part of the FDIC."

— Dennis S. Hudson 3rd, Seacoast Banking Corp.'s chairman and CEO, after the agency sold Riverside National Bank in Florida to TD Bank by pairing it with two unrelated banks in less-desirable areas.
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