Michael Mayo Quotations

The performance of the Bank of New York's retail bank has lagged, the stock value of pure-plays has increased, and Bank of New York stock has lagged. We sense that the time is right for this move.

First, it is a decent local New York franchise. With the recent sale of North Fork, the retail bank is the second largest regionally based and regionally focused bank behind Commerce Bank.

The strongest signs of industry momentum will likely appear mid-March when the brokers report.

The one issue, the one question that comes to mind, is we need to quantify where the (buyers) are coming from. Some of these units are $1 million and up. Can our work force afford these? We have a crisis of affordable housing in that area already.

This is one of the most popular stocking sites. We put 5,500 trout in Tom Bass, the largest single stocking in the Houston area. It's a good-sized lake and it can handle quite a bit of fishing pressure. Most sites get between 1,000 and 2,000 fish.

There's a lot of chefs in the kitchen.

Asset management is a scale business, and we expect some cost saves.

The charge for credit cards should help upcoming quarters for loan losses. Also, the company should benefit more than most from ongoing restructuring, including $800 million of remaining merger savings.