You will not see, in my career, the kind of returns this industry had in 2005 and 2006 for a very simple reason - the banks were undercapitalized, and returns are a function of earnings and capital.

The threshold question: Will banks continue to exist? The answer is yes, because society will still need the two essential functions they provide: mobilization of capital from providers to users, and facilitation of payments for goods and services.

Banks should decide on dividend increases and share buybacks after receiving the results of stress tests, when they know how much capital regulators wish them to hold.

Banking's a sexy industry! Creative - it's dynamic, it's global, it's fast-moving, you bring a lot of talented people together!

I mean, my people were very, very simple. They were peasant people, you know?

That is what made America great: that everyone had the opportunity to be a winner. And I think it's still there. I'm certainly a beneficiary of it.