Political Quotes

“first, let me commend the members of the Banking Committee, Senator Riegle particularly, who is on the floor, Senator D'Amato, and Senator Dodd, for bringing up what I consider long overdue, and that is the interstate banking bill. As Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said last year: "We currently have a de facto system of interstate banking. But it's a patchwork system, and it's clumsy." I would certainly agree, Madam President, and I believe this bill will bring a degree of much needed rationality to the banking system and make our Nation's banks more competitive with their international counterparts. It is very important. I was in the commercial banking business for 25 years, and I have observed the participation of foreign institutions doing business in the United States, their ability to compete with us, and, of course, the difficulty of our banks being allowed access to foreign countries on the basis of reciprocity. So we need to have a correction here that will bring our banking system more into conformity to compete with our international counterparts.”