Washington Mutual

September 29, 2008 | By Dan Bowman

Who: Washington Mutual

What: 13^th bank failure of 2008 (Sept. 25, 2008)

Where: Henderson, Nevada and Park City, Utah

Why: Poorly hedged mortgage bets, and losses in its big credit loan portfolio and on mortgage loans. A $16.7 billion bank run over a 10-day span triggered the takeover by the government.

Fast Facts: Before its collapse, WaMu was the sixth-largest bank in the United States...its failure is the biggest in American history; Washington Mutual Bank and its subsidiary, Washington Mutual FSB, had combined assets of $307 billion, with $188 billion in total deposits; JPMorgan Chase acquired the assets and liabilities for $1.9 billion; FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair said of the bank's failure "For all depositors and other customers of Washington Mutual Bank, this is simply a combination of two banks."; WaMu's failure occurred on the 119^th anniversary of its founding; prior to failure, WaMu ranked No. 12 on a list compiled by Ladenburg-Thalmann analyst Richard Bove of institutions that were likely to fail.

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