You mention Washington Mutual, they went bust in the recession. It was the largest bank failure in U.S. history. Depositors were protected by the FDIC but there was no bailout, stockholders lost 100% of their investment. The Feds ended up selling WA Mu's assets (branch banks, customer list, etc) to JP Morgan Chase for pennies on the dollar. A great deal for JP Morgan Chase, not so good for WA MU shareholders. At the time I remember hearing gripes from investors that the Feds would have provided a bailout or at least more attractive terms if WA Mu had been based in New York rather than in Seattle, which was far away from Wall Street and Federal policy makers Washington D.C.
That was correct in my first draft, not sure what happened. Probably has something to do with the complexity surrounding their bonus structure for employees that stayed on to help the transition to JPMC. Thanks for flagging!
You mention Washington Mutual, they went bust in the recession. It was the largest bank failure in U.S. history. Depositors were protected by the FDIC but there was no bailout, stockholders lost 100% of their investment. The Feds ended up selling WA Mu's assets (branch banks, customer list, etc) to JP Morgan Chase for pennies on the dollar. A great deal for JP Morgan Chase, not so good for WA MU shareholders. At the time I remember hearing gripes from investors that the Feds would have provided a bailout or at least more attractive terms if WA Mu had been based in New York rather than in Seattle, which was far away from Wall Street and Federal policy makers Washington D.C.
That was correct in my first draft, not sure what happened. Probably has something to do with the complexity surrounding their bonus structure for employees that stayed on to help the transition to JPMC. Thanks for flagging!