“All ABS were perceived as too risky due to the US experience in the subprime mortgage markets. But this regulation is like calibrating the price of flood insurance on the experience of New Orleans for a city like Madrid” Yves Mersch, board member of the ECB, exposes the absurdity of capital treatment of asset-backed securities in Europe (see Chain reaction: Can the need for SME finance set Europe’s securitization market free?)

"You cannot call that many people on the streets for just one park"

"The day one of the big oil companies first invoices China for oil in renminbis and receives payment in Chinese government bonds as result is what will really open people’s eyes"

"It is borrowers’ own issuance patterns that have led to this state of illiquidity. And what are they doing about it? Nothing. We need dealers and corporate treasurers to engage more constructively on this"

"When I got here, the bank was a time bomb. We had £700 billion of banking assets and £300 billion of wholesale funding, half of which was short-term with an average tenor of two months. The bank was in danger of going bankrupt"

"Corporates that issue hybrids get part equity treatment which enables their senior bonds to get a higher rating or for their rating to be protected. But another way of looking at it is that the corporate now has more debt so the probability of default is higher. This is a ratings and rules arbitrage. If you are going to play in this market you had better understand the motivations behind that arbitrage"

“We are going to go armed and we will get this fucking money”

“They needed a good kick up the backside” Tony Fernandes, CEO of Air Asia, on the post-crisis banking industry

"We are trying to actualize a market that has been very much talked about but primarily theoretical"

"Scaling down an investment bank, particularly its derivatives positions, is a bit like shutting down a nuclear reactor. That’s something you do only very slowly and by keeping all your best and highest-paid engineers to do it"

"Many banks have gone to considerable lengths in recent years to disclose more information about their risks, but the fact remains that investors tend to see banks as opaque black boxes where risks are still poorly disclosed or – worse – actively obscured by management"

"If you look at the behaviour of many banks even last year, they were in denial over the rising cost of funding. They were still doing loss-making loans in the hope of generating a return by cross-selling other services"

"Deals are being oversubscribed by anything ranging from three to four times up to 15 times – and these are for small $100 million deals up to multibillion dollar deals"

We could build capital to the moon and we would not have to worry about an institution failing, but the economy would not be there”

"They would overly emphasize the 120% debt-to-GDP ratio as a means to squeeze the private sector to accept a lower interest rate on their future claims. They also kept hidden throughout the negotiations the amount of money they were going to put into the Greek rescue package"

"I told my banker that while it looked like the bank was lending me £5 million and it was certainly charging me for £5 million, it was really only lending me £2.5 million. I wonder how many times that has happened"

"I have never in my life seen Spain in such a difficult moment as this. We’re trying to do as much as we can for the country. The situation in the country worries me, but the situation of the bank does not. Santander is in a great position. Our subsidiaries model has been totally vindicated. The group is strong, even when one part of the group is weakened"

"Investing for impact is the most important evolution in investing we have seen in our lifetime"

"The entire lending industry was so inefficient, and the way to make it efficient was to cut out the bank"

"There’s an intuitive grocer-shop mentality towards bookrunners – ‘three or four for the price of one’ – but when it comes to actually managing the deal you can only have two or three. Otherwise there’s chaos and no responsibility"

"I had a discussion with a very senior regulator recently who told me: ‘Look, I know we’ve gone too far too fast on some of this and that we’ve made some errors, but I’m afraid I don’t know how to stop this process.’ Now that’s quite scary"

"To be an Apple in the wealth-management arena with regards to technology would be the holy grail"

"Rehypothecation is not a four-letter word"

"We think this is a once in 35 year opportunity for the banking system. We are in a perfect storm as customer loyalty to their bank is low and customer service has been a key differentiator"

"He needs to get his returns back on track soon or else investors will start to pull out money, which will bring down assets, and then more will pull out. He’s far from over but he has lost a lot of money now, which is concerning"

"Don’t be a dick"

"Starting as managing director with Christine Lagarde’s background is not an advantage at this point...There are arguments to say there should be some distance between the region concerned and the people who have to decide how the fund deals with it"

"It is highly optimistic, if not naïve, to believe that forcing debt investors to contribute to a bank’s recapitalization would encourage them to lend fresh money to this bank"

"What does he mean by this? I suppose it is about police coming and taking us like we see with the press. What kind of police-type measures could be imposed against a bank? This is like a joke. Isn’t this a state of law?"

“The prime-minister designate asked me: ‘Are you refusing to serve your country?’ Something inside me said ‘Look, go, give it a try’”