The Year in Quotes — Pt. 1
November 30, 2011 11:53 AM
"We all know that inadequate underwriting and loose credit standards contributed to the financial crisis but the pendulum has swung too far toward regulatory micromanagement."
Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee
"Your relationship with your bank has traditionally been very personal, and the industry has gotten away from that over the past 20 years. Social media gives us an opportunity to get back to a community."
Frank Eliason, SVP of Social Media at Citigroup
"We know these credit card companies and the big banks have been overcharging for years."
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., author of the Durbin interchange provision
"In 12 months we may be looking at a lot of capital, and maybe it will make some people do some stupid things."
Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
"They're dead and they don't even know it."
Ed Wehmer, president and CEO of Wintrust Financial Corp., comparing many struggling banks to Bruce Willis' character in the movie "The Sixth Sense"
"Politicizing the funding of bank supervision would be a dangerous precedent, and it would deprive the CFPB of the predictable funding it will need to examine large and powerful banks consistently and to provide a level playing field with their nonbank competitors."
Elizabeth Warren, defacto head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Mobile's "very much a game changer for how corporate executives can do their banking. It's as substantial as the introduction of the Internet eight or nine years ago. We're still in the early days, but you'll see myriad uses of this channel coming in the next two or three years."
Prabhat Vira, a senior official at Citizens Financial Group
"As long as they have white sand and sunshine, Florida will be good to go."
David Turner, chief financial officer of Regions Financial Corp.
"Obviously, there aren't many days when I get up and think positively about the Countrywide transaction."
Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America Corp.
"If I didn't work at a bank, I would never go in a bank."
Jon Ikard, CEO of FirstBank Holding Co.
"Passing laws to ban Shariah when we have American soldiers in two Muslim countries and bases all across Europe where there are large minority Muslim populations is an ill-considered idea. The people that are hyped up about this issue are just very uninformed."
Stephen Lange Ranzini, president and CEO of University Bancorp, a bank that has an Islamic finance division, on legislation in several states that would ban Shariah law, a system recognized by some observant Muslims
"The OTS was going around giving out MOUs like candy to all the thrifts. Maybe they wanted to be relevant in the last hour, or in some cases they needed a baton to pass to the OCC."
Brett Rabatin, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach on the over-zealousness of the Office of Thrift Supervision in its final months
"Years ago, it was predicted banks will become dinosaurs and that brick and mortar is going to go away. But in the markets we're in, especially in metro areas like New York City, there's foot traffic. People want the comfort and security of knowing if they need to get a cashier's check on a Saturday, they can go in and see somebody."
Will Howle, chief operating officer of North America consumer banking at Citigroup
"We found when we listened to customers, they wanted to go [to a branch] and meet somebody and open an account. [After enrollment], a vast majority of all interactions happened online."
Mike Ley, vice president of the e-business and payments group at PNC, on letting people go to a branch to sign up for the online-focused Virtual Wallet account
"Why are they putting this out here, now? Do we need another way to exchange our money?"
William Breninghouse, a small-business owner in Eugene, Ore., who holds leadership positions in several local economic organizations, expressing skepticism on American Express Corp.'s digital wallet, Serve
