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View Full Version : WaMu cutting 1,200 jobs nationwide


Chief
06-20-2008, 06:38 AM
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008006857_webwamu19.html

Washington Mutual is cutting 1,200 more jobs nationwide, including 260 at its downtown Seattle headquarters. The troubled lender, which...

By Drew DeSilver Seattle Times business reporter



Washington Mutual is cutting 1,200 more jobs nationwide, including 260 at its downtown Seattle headquarters.

The troubled lender, which has been hit hard by the housing slump and credit crunch, cut jobs throughout its operations, spokeswoman Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot said today.

The layoffs targeted workers whose jobs weren't considered "mission-critical," Donahoe-Wilmot said, and included workers in the home-loans business, technology, human resources and corporate support.

WaMu currently employs nearly 46,000 people, she said, including 4,600 in Seattle and 1,700 elsewhere in Washington state. Since the end of 2007, the company has cut more than 3,500 jobs, not counting the layoffs announced today.

Workers were told about the cuts this morning, Donahoe-Wilmot said. Some of the affected workers will lose their jobs as soon as a week or two from now, she said; most will be gone by the end of the year.

Eligible laid-off employees who don't find other jobs inside the company will receive severance and job placement assistance.

WaMu, the nation's biggest thrift and one of the biggest financial institutions of any kind, has sharply reduced its home-loan business and stopped offering several of the riskier kinds of mortgages, including subprime loans at the epicenter of the mortgage meltdown.

Just Wednesday, WaMu said it would stop offering negative-amortizing loans and WaMu Mortgage Plus loans. The former add unpaid but accrued interest to the loan balance, and borrowers may end up owing more than they borrowed; the latter are mortgage loans with built-in lines of credit and flexible payments.

WaMu shares gained 9 cents today to close at $6.35.

Drew DeSilver: 206-464-3145 or ddesilver@seattletimes.com


So WAMU continues to clean house. I wonder what will finally emerge when it's all said and done, whether WAMU even resembles the Corporation as it is now.

And with the Bear-Stearns CEO indictments yesterday, can the indictments against WAMU big-wigs be far behind??

Still developing...

cewl

Waterbuffalo
06-22-2008, 12:30 AM
Sad to hear such a big bank business as WAMU fall for such mistakes as the Ninja and many other stupid loans.

Do I have a feeling of huge efforts by the banking and financial industries to curry favor with the Feds?

Chief
06-22-2008, 06:34 AM
That's what Countrywide Financial did. 80% of their re-finance business was through Fannie Mae, and those loans have some of the highest default rates around. Countrywide was also making home loans with highly favorable terms and special rates to members of Congress, including Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee who oversees Fannie Mae.

WAMU was out there bribing appraisal firms so they could jack the loan amounts higher and higher on these ARMs that are defaulting now. They couldn't have done it alone, and they no-doubt got a payback on many of the Political contributions that WAMU made over the years.

These things do not happen in a vacume.

Waterbuffalo
06-22-2008, 07:41 PM
Doubt they will continue to happen in a vacuum with out some political collusion or favorable prison sentences?

Hmm, Hope too many people enjoy three meals, a cot and liberal/conversative conventions on the tele as they watch from some minimal sentences for this little bitty scandal..

Hopefully it will not happen in the future but you know, it will..