Results tagged “banks”

Washington State leads the country in troubled banks: a whopping 26.3% of banks in the state are either troubled or have outright failed.

It was nearly a year ago we when witnessed the financial meltdown and takeover of 119-year old Washington Mutual. Banking FAIL! Flash forward to today, KING5-TV reports close to 100 former vice-presidents and other mid-to-senior level executives of the now-defunct WaMu have filed lawsuits against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) seeking the government (or, perhaps ultimately the taxpayers) to pay up the millions they're owed.

Today, we decided to call WaMu to ask about getting our mortgage bailed out in some sort of way, since all the other kool kids are doing it, including WaMu's new sugar daddies themselves.

The Seattle Times reports that JP Morgan will lay off as many as 3,000 WaMu employees in the Seattle area, cutting the local WaMu workforce to just under a third of its former glory. Layoffs begin this week, and by December 1--in the thick of the holiday shopping season--all of the decisions will have been made about who stays and who goes. This doesn't come as a surprise, but the numbers are breathtaking and the impact on our local economy will be significant. From the Times article: "'It's pretty dire for Seattle,' said one former high-ranking executive." Brace yourselves--it's looking like a cold, lean winter ahead.

Seattlest's MvB happens to be in Iceland on vacation, as the country is struggling with an intense economic crisis. Which he had no part in instigating, despite the great deals he's getting with the exchange rate. This is his post on what's going on in Reykjavik, which is Icelandic for "smoky bay." He looked that up.

We switched most of our banking over to USAA last year (WaMu was pretty good for a bank, but USAA is stellar). We've still got an account at WaMu, though. As recommended, we'll continue to use WaMu's website as usual, and we're not really worried about the security of our well-under-$100,000 deposit. But we were curious about what's going to happen when at our local branches. Consumerist found a banking insider to provide a one-year timeline of the assimilation process. Short version of the prediction: No big changes for about 6 months, but by the end of the year you'll be writing Chase-logoed checks and saying "good morning" to different faces at your local branch.

These are, you'd think, the pertinent numbers about Washington Mutual's 2007.