WaMu Wiki

[1] Despite its name, it is not a credit union, and ceased being a mutual company in 1983. It is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Washington Mutual's principal activities are to provide financial services to consumers and small businesses such as retail banking, mortgage lending, consumer lending, business banking, business lending, insurance services, credit card services, commercial real estate mortgage and consumer investment services. Washington Mutual is the sole surviving major Seattle-based bank after the flurry of mergers in the 1980s and 1990s ended the independence of Rainier Bank, Seafirst Bank, and Peoples National Bank, among others. Washington Mutual operates more than 2,600 retail banking, mortgage lending, commercial banking, and financial services offices, as of June 30, 2006. Contents 1 History 2 Occasio Branches 3 Acquisitions 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History Washington Mutual was founded as the Washington National Building Loan and Investment Association on September 25, 1889, in an attempt to save Seattle's economy after a fire nearly destroyed the city. The newly formed company made its first home mortgage loan on the West Coast on February 10, 1890. Its name was changed to Washington Savings and Loan Association on June 25, 1908. During World War I, its assets would expand by 68%. By now called Washington Mutual Savings Bank, the company made its first acquisition on July 25, 1930, by purchasing Continental Mutual Savings Bank. Over the next fifty years, it would be involved in pioneering cash machine networks and telephone banking. Its marketing slogan for much of its history was "The Friend of the Family." In 1983, Washington Mutual bought the brokerage firm, Murphey Favre, and demutualized. Today, it trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WM. By 1989, its assets had doubled. In March 2006, Washington Mutual began moving into its new headquarters, WaMu Center, located in downtown Seattle. The company's previous headquarters, Washington Mutual Tower, still stands about a block away from the new building on Second Avenue. In August 2006, Washington Mutual began using the official abbreviation of WaMu in all but the legal viewpoint. In December 2007, Washington Mutual announced a reorganization of its home loan division which resulted in closing 160 of its 336 home loan offices. This resulted in a loss of 2600 positions in its home loan staff (a 22% reduction). In April 2008, Washington Mutual, responding to losses and difficulties sustained as a result of the home mortgage crisis of 2007-08, announced a $7 billion infusion of new capital by new outside investors led by TPG Capital, formerly Texas Pacific Group. TPG will pump $2 billion into WaMu; other so-far-unidentified investors, including some of WaMu's current institutional holders, will buy an additional $5 billion in newly issued stock. 3,000 people companywide will lose their jobs, and it will close its approximately 186 remaining stand-alone home-loan offices, including 23 in Washington State and a loan-processing center in Bellevue. It also will stop buying loans from outside mortgage brokers €” known in the trade as "wholesale lending."

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[edit] Occasio Branches Washington Mutual has a number of branches which it groups under the banner of "Occasio Branches". Occasio is Latin for "favorable opportunity" or "special occasion" (which is also the root of the English word, occasion). These branches are designed to provide a more open space than a traditional bank branch, and to have a look and feel similar to that of a contemporary retail store. Instead of teller windows at a counter with a roped-off queue for customers, tellers process customer transactions at individual stations. At these branches, the tellers ordinarily do not give cash directly to customers, but instead give customers a receipt with a PIN. Customers then walk over to an ATM-like money dispensing machine where they enter the one-time generated PIN to receive cash. At some Occasio branches, the money is dispensed directly from the teller station, instead of a central machine.

[edit] Acquisitions A Washington Mutual in Naperville, Illinois Since the acquisition of Murphey Favre, Washington Mutual has made numerous acquisitions with the aim of expanding the corporation. By acquiring corporations such as PNC Mortgage, Fleet Mortgage, and Homeside Lending; Washington Mutual is now the third largest mortgage lender in the United States. With the acquisition of Providian Financial Corporation in October 2005, WaMu has also become the nation's 9th largest credit card company. A list of Washington Mutual acquisitions since demutualization follows: Commercial Capital Bancorp, California, 2006 Providian Financial Corporation, California, 2005 HomeSide Lending, Inc., Florida, a unit of National Australia Bank, 2002 Dime Bancorp, Inc., New York, 2002 Fleet Mortgage Corp., South Carolina, 2001 Bank United Corp., Texas, 2001 PNC Mortgage, Illinois, 2001 Alta Residential Mortgage Trust, California, 2000 Long Beach Financial Corp., California, 1999 Industrial Bank, California, 1998 H.F. Ahmanson &Co. (Home Savings of America), California, 1998 Great Western Bank, 1997 United Western Financial Group, Inc., Utah, 1997 Keystone Holdings, Inc. (American Savings Bank), California, 1996 Utah Federal Savings Bank, 1996 Western Bank, Oregon, 1996 Enterprise Bank, Washington, 1995 Olympus Bank FSB, Utah, 1995 Summit Savings Bank, Washington, 1994 Far West Federal Savings Bank, Oregon, 1994 Pacific First Bank, Ontario, 1993 Pioneer Savings Bank, Washington, 1993 Great Northwest Bank, Washington, 1992 Sound Savings &Loan Association, Washington, 1991 CrossLand Savings FSB, Utah, 1991 Vancouver Federal Savings Bank, Washington, 1991 Williamsburg Federal Savings Association, Utah, 1990 Frontier Federal Savings Association, Washington, 1990 Old Stone Bank of Washington, FSB, Rhode Island, 1990 Continental Mutual Savings, 1930

[edit] References ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/business/07cnd-wamu.html ^ "$7 billion gives shaky WaMu firmer footing for now", Drew DeSilver, Seattle Times, April 9, 2008. Retrieved April 9, 2008.

[edit] External links Washington Mutual A letter to Washington Mutual and their debt collecting agency, IC System - from Nigel Parry, nigelparry.com, May 15th, 2008. A not-so-rosy customer experience results in a frustrated letter to WaMu that details its hiking up of interest rates on a customer in good standing, and the business practices of IC System, its debt collecting agent. v €¢ d €¢ e 50 largest American banks and bank holding companies Associated €¢ BancWest €¢ Bank of America €¢ Bank of New York Mellon €¢ BBVA USA €¢ BB&T €¢ BOK Financial €¢ Capital One €¢ Citigroup €¢ Citizens Financial Group €¢ City National €¢ Colonial €¢ Comerica €¢ Commerce Bancshares €¢ FBOP €¢ Fifth Third €¢ First BanCorp €¢ First Citizens €¢ First Horizon National €¢ First National of Nebraska €¢ Fulton €¢ Harris €¢ HSBC Bank USA €¢ Huntington €¢ JPMorgan Chase €¢ Key €¢ M&T €¢ Marshall & Ilsley €¢ National City €¢ New York Community €¢ New York Private €¢ Northern Trust €¢ PNC €¢ Popular €¢ RBC Centura €¢ Regions €¢ South Financial Group €¢ State Street €¢ SunTrust €¢ Synovus €¢ Taunus €¢ TCF €¢ TD Banknorth €¢ U.S. €¢ UnionBanCal €¢ W Holding €¢ Wachovia €¢ Webster €¢ Wells Fargo €¢ Zions Bancorporation v €¢ d €¢ e Seattle-based Corporations (within the Seattle metropolitan area) Seattle-based Fortune 500 Corporations (by size): Washington Mutual €¢ Amazon.com €¢ Nordstrom €¢ Starbucks €¢ Safeco Seattle-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size): Companies listed above, plus: Alaska Airlines €¢ Expeditors International €¢ Plum Creek Timber Puget Sound-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size): Companies listed above, plus: Costco Wholesale €¢ Microsoft €¢ Weyerhaeuser €¢ Paccar €¢ Puget Sound Energy Major Seattle- and Puget Sound-based non-public or externally owned corporations: Nintendo of America €¢ REI €¢ T-Mobile USA €¢ WestFarm Foods Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Mutual" Categories: Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | Banks of the United States | Companies based in Seattle, Washington | Companies established in 1889