FDIC brokers sale of Washington Mutual to JP Morgan Chase - investors wiped out !!!

[FourScore]

FDIC brokers sale of Washington Mutual to JP Morgan Chase - investors wiped out
by Sick Of It
Thu Sep 25, 2008 at 04:39:38 PM PDT

It's been announced on CNBC that Washington Mutual has been seized by the FDIC and their deposits sold to JP Morgan Chase for an undisclosed sum.

There isn't much more info available.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't have a deposit account with Washington Mutual, but I have a credit card. I'm not sure what will happen to my account (or what horrendous interest rates and fees I'll have to pay if my account gets bought).

Washington Mutual is pretty big (something like $143 Billion in deposits), and the talking heads on CNBC have been saying it's strange that FDIC seized them on a Thursday night. They said the execs at WaMu didn't even know what had happened.

If anyone has any insight into what happens next with my account, I'm all ears.

It seems our banks are all failing.

UPDATE:

Here's the news story.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) has agreed to acquire the deposits of struggling savings and loan Washington Mutual Inc (WM.N) in a government-brokered deal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Earlier, JPMorgan, the third-largest U.S. bank, said it would hold an investor conference call at 9:15 p.m. EDT on Thursday, but it did not say why.

JPMorgan officials were not available for comment.

Sources have said that JPMorgan was one of the banks circling Wamu, the largest U.S. thrift, which has been talking to buyers about selling itself.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080925/bs_nm/us_jpmorgan_callbiz

CNBC is saying JP Morgan Chase is buying deposits, assets, and all WaMu branches. WaMu shareholders and investors are out all their money.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/25/193452/657/634/610593

[az chela]

1. I also would like to know about the amount I owe on

a credit card and what happens now???

[knowbody0]

5. you are an asset

you've been bought

[az chela]

7. so where does my payment go?????????Help

[knowbody0]

11. same as ever

your next bill will have a new logo. that's all. terms are still the same, penalty b.s. and all the same.

when you sign for a mortgage with a mortgage company, they sell the paper you signed. this is the same kind of transaction, only wamu HAD to sell you.

[Sebastian Doyle]

12. Same place as always, until they tell you otherwise.

I'll say this for WaMu, they were usually good about that keeping their customers informed of changes, even though it was sometimes after the fact, as it probably is with this. (Haven't had an account with them for about a year, so I'm not sure what notices they may or may not have sent out about their recent financial difficulties.)

[Sebastian Doyle]

9. Now you'll get a Chase credit card

And your interest rate will probably double. Or worse.

[dana_b]

2. omg

"CNBC is saying JP Morgan Chase is buying deposits, assets, and all WaMu branches. WaMu shareholders and investors are out all their money."

I hope most saw this coming and pulled out before today.

[UndertheOcean]

3. I have about 1500 in debt on a credit card from WaMu

wonder what will happen now , maybe my account will be lost !

[az chela]

4. hey lets hope they all get lost!!!!I wonder if you send a payment

where it goes.Those late fees are hell

[FourScore]

6. It won'tclose, but I would be wondering if the terms will change.

[anigbrowl]

8. Nothing changes with your accounts.

Continue to send your payments in on time, or pay them off completely if you can, don't assume you'll get any breaks. Read your paperwork carefully.

[az chela]

10. they have upped my interest to 39 % because I was paying 200

a month on an 8000 balance and they kept adding late fees so nothing has went toward the balance in 2 years.I tried to get a pay off amount and they want 400 to give it to me

[az chela]

13. the reason that they dont put any money toward the balance

is because the 200 doesnt pay the minimum but the payment has been made on time every month and always accepted.I want to get the money from the credit union and pay it off but like I said they WILL NOT give me a payoff amount unless I send them 400 to one of their lawyers

[anigbrowl]

14. Read this carefully

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Debt_Collection_Practices_Act

Then read the law carefully. Finally, do not do business verbally. they are trained to talk you into agreeing to stuff you don't want to. Communicate by email or paper letter only, and whenever you want to request something (after your careful reading) ask it in the form, 'In accordance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Section x.y.z, please tell me...'.

Keep your communications short (one subject and one subject only per email, not 10 different questions), and if they give you one of their 'runaround answers', just keep repeating the question. Feel free to say 'I am dissatisfied with this response and wish to have this matter escalated.' Also, call the credit agencies (Equifax etc. ) and challenge the outstanding debts - after filing notice that you are disputing them, tell the credit bureau that you are doing so.

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to generate more and more paperwork for the bank. this iwll be time consuming and annoying for you at first, but the more bureaucracy you send to the bank the more it is going to cost them to keep holding out.

[sixmile]

15. Don't pay them

Unless you're seeking an immediate loan (for a home or auto) you should tell them to piss up a rope.
It feels good, it won't hurt your "credit score" that bad, and you will still qualify for many other things in the future.
Its not the end of the world. It is a non collateralized loan.This country was built on debt and usury (which is what they are forcing on you).

[az chela]

17. Great idea,this is exactly what I will do THANKS

[Marrah_G]

16. yikes- the market is going to be fucked up tommorrow.

[upi402]

18. FDIC link here, shows WAMU listed today

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html

Too bad, I liked the WAMU. I closed my checking accounts almost 2 weeks ago and Just got a WAMU credit card -and it has a pretty big balance right now!
Hope all staff are okay.

[sixmile]

21. My wife received a new WaMu credit card yesterday

They've been hitting the credit markets hard trying to lure new customers in anticipation of this for months.
Don't let anyone tell you these things are not planned.
I feel sorry for the shareholders who rode this thing down from $50.
I imagine the employees 401K was invested heavily in WM stock without hedges against failure. Just an assumption.

[FarCenter]

22. A lot of the staff will go

JP Morgan Chase is the result of mergers between JP Morgan, Chase Manhattan, Bank One, NBD, First Chicago, Chemical, Manufacturers Hanover, Texas Commerce Bank, and a number more.

They have lots of experience in doing mergers, and they have a large volume of checking accounts and credit card accounts, as well as the systems to process the transactions. A lot of the back office processing will be shifted to the Chase operations.

There are always integration issues, but the volume is just a modest increment on Chase's existing volumes.

[upi402]

23. Excellent info.

One company under God... it seems, with all these mergers and lifted restrictions (legalized lawlessness).

I imagine they will need to keep existing staff at the brick and mortar branches.
I've been loging on to my accounts 3X a day until a week ago. DUers alerted me, though I didn't want to beleive it. I acted on the advice from fellow DUers and glad of it.

[FarCenter]

24. Where Chase and WaMu don't overlap geographically

they will keep the branches and the people.

And for the most part, the geographic footprints are different.

Retail banking has a lot of large, fixed costs and only modest incremental costs as volume goes up.

The natural tendency would be to merge down to about three major retail banks.

Most countries have way fewer banks than the US. We have lots because of former laws that at one time did not permit branching and that did not permit branching across state lines.

Canada and the UK only have a few large retail banks.

[MadHound]

19. And the hits just keep coming. n/t

[FreakinDJ]

20. Sounds like the FDIC handed JP Morgan a really good deal

"WaMu shareholders and investors are out all their money."

Could not have been a better deal if Bush and his cronies had brokered it themselves.

Oh wait - they did

[Mme. Defarge]

25. Jeez!

As of yesterday they were running radio ads in the Portland area for potential business customers.