Q-Are you spending more time in Washington D.C.?
A-It gets written about more than is actual. The only difference now [when I travel there] is that I tend to go visit some senators and congressmen and the Fed.
Q-You’ve modified hundreds of thousands of mortgages. Is the push for mortgage modification a bad deal for banks?
A-No. You’ll lose less money. If you sell at foreclosure, you’re going to lose a lot of money. We’ve had to hire 5,000 people to manage the complexity, the system. It is working on a large scale, but some of the stuff is early on. A lot of people have short-term cash flow issues. It really is for people who live in their homes and want to stay there.
Q-Is Main Street angry about banks being bailed out through federal assistance?
A- Do you think we were bailed out? Absolutely, positively not. What assistance? Bear, Stearns? They didn’t assist us. We assisted them. WaMu? They didn’t assist us. I think we saved the government a lot of money in both cases. In the stress test, we had 60 percent more capital. Not six. Sixty. We were never in jeopardy as a company. TARP cost us several billion dollars. We didn’t need it.
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I need to contact someone with authority within CHASE, I have been trying (and paying an outregeous mortgage payment) to clarify an issue with CHASE Mortgage and home owners insurance dept., that it has been going on since last year. BAD BUSINESS FOR CHASE, AND A REAL SHAME! Please advise.
M. Haviland