Washington Mutual has ended it’s run with the seizure by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. JPMorgan Chase is buying the assets for 1.9 billion dollars.
WaMu has been in it’s death throws for the past month with people speculating when it would bite the dust. Well, today was the day.
What is starting to show cracks is the FDIC. With the high profile failures of WaMu and IndyMac the FDIC is running out of money. Word on the street is that they will be looking for a bailout themselves for up to 150 billion dollars.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Inc. came to the rescue of ailing Washington Mutual Inc. Thursday, buying the ailing thrift’s banking assets after WaMu was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. This is the second time in six months that JPMorgan Chase has taken over a major financial institution crippled by bad bets in the mortgage market.
The deal will cost JPMorgan Chase $1.9 billion, and the bank said in a statement it planned to write down WaMu’s loan portfolio by approximately $31 billion. JPMorgan Chase, which acquired Bear Stearns Cos. last March, also said it would sell $8 billion in common stock to raise its capital position.
The FDIC, which insures bank deposits, said it would not have to dip into the insurance fund as a result of the seizure. There had been concerns that the fund, which took a big hit after the seizure of IndyMac Bank, could be depleted by a WaMu seizure. via Yahoo! Finance
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This is unfortunate, but it should serve as a wake up call to all American investors. If you want to protect your money, you need to diversify and invest at least some of it overseas. These are hard times for American investing firms. I personally use offshore bank accounts and they have helped me with diversification and asset protection. If you want to read more on why offshore investing is smarter, feel free to visit my website.
Best,
Frank Miller