Goodbye WaMu

[cabinetman]

http://voanews.com/english/2008-09-26-voa7.cfm
.

[steve-norrell]

I had some WaMu Funds in the grandkids 529 plans until July. When the funds began fade, I 'exchanged' them for government bond funds. Did I luck out?

Regards, Steve

[cgallery]

I had some WaMu Funds in the grandkids 529 plans until July. When the funds began fade, I 'exchanged' them for government bond funds. Did I luck out?

Regards, Steve

That is absolutely gloatworthy.

[radhak]

I had some WaMu Funds in the grandkids 529 plans until July. When the funds began fade, I 'exchanged' them for government bond funds. Did I luck out?

Regards, Steve

Yes, you should treat yourself to something : while savings/checking/MM/CDs accounts are protected by FDIC, mutual funds are not, so all that money might have been toast. At the same time, retirement funds are protected, so not very sure how 529s are treated.

Funnily, if you have safe-deposit boxes, it's iffy : the new buyer (JPC) could take it over, or be the nice guy and give it back to you.

[Uncle Cracker]

My WAMU fund was purchased by Principal Funds a year or so ago, so I guess I got lucky, too, although there wasn't much in it...

[newood2]

Have you ever walk into a WAMU bank? I did once to check out a CD offer. The ignorance and hospitality(whether deliberate or not) of the employees was so scary I made a hasty exit. I saw the writing on the wall, customer service is a good indicator of a bank's longevity.

[gordons]

Fortunately, I have not used my Wamu account in a number of years since they are not represented in my State. However, I still receive regular statements (on-line of course) from them and thought that I would share the latest one with you. Think I should cash out?

[Uncle Cracker]

Think I should cash out?

With housing values in a nose dive, that's just about enough to get you a little vacation place...

[pelligrini]

Or a single gumball.

[pecker]

Their most recent press release was to congratulate themselves on their diversity:
http://newsroom.wamu.com/phoenix.zht...788&highlight=

Maybe they shoulda been paying attention to more important things.

[Tom Slick]

I've been banking with Wamu for 10 years. They've been a good bank to me. I don't have any investments with them so I'm safe.

[Pappy]

Their most recent press release was to congratulate themselves on their diversity:
http://newsroom.wamu.com/phoenix.zht...788&highlight=

Maybe they shoulda been paying attention to more important things.

Yep, sounds like they were more interested in being politcally correct than making money!

[Bruce Cohen]

I don't know, I kinda liked their TV spots, (yeah right) with about the same enjoyment as having part of my colon removed.

Bruce

[ragswl4]

Yikes! On June 30, 2008 WaMu said they held assets of $309 Billion, that's with a B. I understand JPM bought them for $1.9 Billion. Quite a rate of return on investment. Oh I heard the CEO who was there for a whole 17 days got fired with $20 million in severance pay.

Could be this was part of their problem. Asleep at the switch when the train was being derailed.

From one of their press releases recently.

"The Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) civil rights organization, also awarded WaMu its second consecutive 100 percent score in the organization’s 2009 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which measures progress in attaining equal rights for GLBT employees and consumers. WaMu joins the ranks of 259 other major U.S. businesses that also received top marks in the annual survey. The CEI rated a total of 583 businesses on GLBT-related policies and practices, including non-discrimination policies and domestic partner benefits."

[Uncle Cracker]

What JPM-C bought was WAMU's assets and their debts... It was a bargain, but JPM-C did not get 150-to-1. The most important thing they got, besides the large retail market presence they had wanted, was a huge tax write-down.