Washington Mutual siezed by gov't and sold last night

[Murphy101]

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized WaMu on Thursday, and then sold the thrift's banking assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co. for $1.9 billion.

 

The seizure by the government means shareholders' equity in WaMu was wiped out. The deal leaves private equity investors including the firm TPG Capital, which gave WaMu a cash infusion totaling $7 billion this spring, on the sidelines empty handed.

 

 

 

[Audrey]

I wouldn't be surprised if this were the first of many such happenings. Maybe the best "bank" is going to go back to being under your own mattress.

[Jean in Newcastle]

This is our bank. So far, other than an announcement on their phone recording, it is business as usual. We've considered taking our accounts somewhere else but what bank is safe?

[Murphy101]

Our lack of funds is so ridiculous that there's really not any discussion about where to put money we don't have.

 

We kind of laugh about everyone else worrying about where to put their money. I'm going to lose $5.42 if my bank goes under. $5 is the minimum to keep the account open or that wouldn't be there. I wouldn't care about keeping the account open except my dh's employer does not write checks, ONLY direct deposits to bank accounts.

 

What freaked me out is that the gov't seized a private company and then sold it to another company!

 

Is no one else concerned about that?!:confused:

[Holly IN]

 

 

What freaked me out is that the gov't seized a private company and then sold it to another company!

 

Is no one else concerned about that?!:confused:

 

 

I am concerned about that!! I do not believe a gov't has any right to seize a private company at all!!!!! :glare: This is just another step away from gov't seizing private homes....:toetap05:

 

Holly

[Mrs Mungo]

The reason they can seize it is because banks are FDIC insured. If it had *actually* collapsed it would have depleted the fund.

 

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080925.wjpmorgan0925/BNStory/Business

[Jean in Newcastle]

But from what I understand from local reports (this is a local bank) is that WAMU was looking for a buyer. So it isn't like the govt. came in and just took something from someone and gave it to someone else. What scares me is that it has come to the point where the banks have made such poor decisions that they need to be rescued.

[Stacy in NJ]

I am concerned about that!! I do not believe a gov't has any right to seize a private company at all!!!!! :glare: This is just another step away from gov't seizing private homes....:toetap05:

 

Holly

 

It was done with the full cooperation of WaMu. WaMu had been desperately shopping around to sell off assets. The Feds just married them to JP Morgan Chase. This is actually a really good thing. WaMu customers won't have any trouble accessing their funds, and Chase is the best managed bank in the US. The US taxpayer is a winner because WaMU didn't need to utilize via FDIC Fed funds.

 

This whole transaction was a very good thing.

[hsmamainva]

I was watching Oprah today and she made the comment that the CEO of WaMu, under the proposed bailout plan, would be able to keep his $11 million dollar severance package, as well as his $8 million dollar signing bonus....and he's been on the job for 3 weeks.

 

Now that is just WRONG!! :angry:

[susie in tx]

In preparation for this, I moved some of our funds out of WAMU. We do the majority of our banking with USAA, but I have high interest savings accounts at WAMU and etrade. The whole thing really started to freak me out, but I tend to read the fine print when putting money somewhere and knew that most of our funds were covered under the FDIC insurance.

[TraceyS/FL]

We kind of laugh about everyone else worrying about where to put their money. I'm going to lose $5.42 if my bank goes under. $5 is the minimum to keep the account open or that wouldn't be there. I wouldn't care about keeping the account open except my dh's employer does not write checks, ONLY direct deposits to bank accounts.

 

DH's side/2nd job only pays that way. For a variety of [private] reasons, we don't currently have an account to dump it into. But, we got a prepaid Visa from Wal Mart (it's Green Dot, but the WM was a better choice for us) and you can DD on it just like a bank account. They give you a routing number and everything - the payroll people can't tell the difference.

 

Just wanted to point that out incase you ever needed that option. I wouldn't have knowing it was available had one of his co-workers not told him about it.

[Slartibartfast]

We used most of our savings paying hospital bills for our son's NICU stay so we don't really have anything in the bank to lose. :(

 

I guess it is good we don't have universal healthcare or we might lose that money in the bank collapse! :tongue_smilie:

 

 

 

Our retirement package is tied to dh's company and seems ok so far.