Washington Mutual (WaMu) bank has been closed and sold to JP Morgan Chase after suffering a bank run during the past fortnight.
The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) stepped in to prevent the bank running out of cash, after seeing $16.7bn of deposits withdrawn since 15 September. Washington Mutual’s assets were sold to JP Morgan for $1.9bn, the second time it has acquired a failed bank’s assets since the start of the credit crunch. WaMu has suffered particularly badly since the collapse of Lehman Brothers due to its rapid expansion into the sub-prime mortgage market. Chief executive Kerry Killinger was sacked several weeks ago after taking the blame for the bank’s move into risky lending. The deal makes JP Morg...
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