New York, Sept. 26 : US federal regulators have seized assets of Washington Mutual, the giant lender, and sold some of it in a bid to arrest the meltdown on Wall Street.
Regulators brokered an emergency sale of virtually all of Washington Mutual — the nation’s largest savings and loan, with $307 billion in assets — to J P Morgan Chase, reports the New York Times.
The move came as lawmakers were stalemated over the passage of a 700 billion dollar bailout fund meant to help ailing banks, and removes one of America’s most troubled banks from the financial landscape while mitigating another potentially huge taxpayer bill for the rescue of another failing institution.
Shareholders and some bondholders will be wiped out.