John Allison Quotations

We are at somewhat of a lull in consolidation, but I think that will pick up again,

We grew up competing with much larger institutions. They are very good at what they do and we knew that we couldn't beat them at their game.

Ninety percent of our stuff is there. We were planning to sell this house as quick as we can and move there, and now we understand, the best reports we're getting that our house there is underwater.

One of the most basic rights of every citizen is to keep what they own. As an institution dedicated to helping our clients achieve economic success and financial security, we won't help any entity or company that would undermine that mission and threaten the hard-earned American dream of property ownership.

BB&T over the years largely has grown through the merger-and- acquisition process, acquiring community banks and thrifts, and that's been successful on our part. Over the last year we've had a little of this indigestion from a lot of mergers over a short period. We needed to take a little breather to refocus on organic revenue growth, and we think we're near that period of time where our internal operations are where we want, so we're looking at getting back into the (M&A) business.

Given that our first quarter is usually negatively affected by a number of seasonal factors, I am encouraged that these positive results reflect a very good start to 2006.

If it's too good to be true, something's wrong.

We're programming these agents to have knowledge about the battlespace,

We're pretty much on schedule, ... We are talking to some people right now, but mergers are unpredictable. ... We'd like to see a transaction in the early part of 2006, but whether we will or not, frankly, depends on the sellers.

I think the market needs to believe that interest rates have peaked, and secondly, that we are not going to have a recession at that point.

I think you blacked out for a little bit there,

We continue to look, but the problem is the market price. There are companies interested in selling, but they have such high expectations that when you run the numbers, you can't match the market price in many cases. It doesn't make any economic sense to me.

We happen to believe in the fundamental concept of individual rights, and one of those is property rights. If that is jeopardized, our entire financial system is also in jeopardy.

Traditionally, we haven't scored very well in the region, but a lot of times in the past we were so much better than the competition that it didn't matter. This year, we're not as good, and the competition is better. Hopefully, with those two things, we'll get fired up and shoot a good score.

We knew that deposits were profitable, but we didn't realize quite how profitable they were. We also have gone to free checking and other free lots of stuff to match up better with the market in terms of pricing.

Boy, I feel bad, ... There's so much I want to show you.

The word got out that this is a nice tournament. People know they're treated in fine fashion when they come down, and it's good competition.

You've got to work at it, ... I'm working up here, too.

This acquisition was particularly attractive because it will allow us to expand our western North Carolina and Virginia franchises as well as our existing presence in northwest Georgia into East Tennessee,

A lot of it is the seat-of-your-pants-type thing and a lot of faith and trust in people.

This merger accelerates our long-term earnings growth potential by expanding our Tennessee market. It will allow us to extend our growing Knoxville-based presence toward Chattanooga and on to our existing north Georgia franchise.

It takes a long time to work through them and get enough evidence to do what we need to do. There (are) some pockets of the state that we're concerned with.

The value system we have at BB&T is also my personal value system.

I have this overwhelming desire to meet my genetic offspring. We'd rent a boat, we'd go fishing. I'd answer anything they had to say.

The idea that a citizen's property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it's just plain wrong.