30 Quotes by Kenneth Chenault

For a number of major companies, if you can't access the commercial markets, you can't fund your business. That's a big problem. You can't pay your bills.

I had very little exposure to business growing up. I also was very focused on the Civil Rights Movement. And I saw law as a vehicle to really bring about substantial change.

I think what's important to understand is if the United States hits the debt ceiling and is unable to pay its debts, the consequences will be immediate and dramatic.

Fourth quarter results from continuing operations met or exceeded our long-term targets for earnings, revenues and, on a pro forma basis, return on equity. Higher spending by affluent consumers, small businesses and corporate Card members more than offset the impact of an industry-wide spike in bankruptcy filings before new legislation went into effect last October.

For me, one of the lessons from 9/11 is that you have to give the organization context for how you're acting, and you've got to communicate constantly, in this case particularly with all the changes that were occurring in the financial marketplace and in the economy.

The actions we announced today are being taken to ensure that we're in a strong position to navigate through what we expect to be a longer period of economic weakness,

We are making good progress on our reengineering initiatives, our risk profile is stronger, and some aspects of the economy -- particularly unemployment rates -- are looking better than we had anticipated at the start of the year,

While we are seeing signs of improvement in volumes, we are continuing to take a cautious view and expect the economy to remain weak throughout 2002,

I've been in the company since 1981 and involved in the card business since 1984, and I believe we are in the strongest position we've been in, ... I remain confident in our overall network strategy and our relationship with MBNA going forward.