Bidding Farewell to Washington Mutual

I was a Washington Mutual customer for many years. When I was a student, they offered truly free checking and a branch nearby, thus meeting my needs. These days, however, I expect more from my bank. For example, I ask that it maintain a certain level of integrity, reliability, and wisdom when it invests my savings. I ask that it not make foolish high-risk investments such as junk bonds or sub-prime home loans. I ask that it not go bankrupt and get seized by the FDIC.

When Wamu was seized and sold to Chase in late 2008, Wamu locations suddenly became infested with flocks of yellow smiley-faced balloons. They bobbed and floated everywhere in a vain attempt to assure bank customers that nothing had gone horribly, horribly wrong. Free chocolate chip cookies and coffee appeared.

A cookie and a balloon might comfort a child after a set of inoculations, but it won't entice me to leave my money in a bank with a track record of risky investments. My family has been gradually moving it's assets out of Wamu since before the sale was announced last year. Yesterday I walked into my local Wamu branch for the very last time to close the last of my accounts. The teller put up a struggle (as I fully expected her to) and thrust a brochure into my hand. I usually ignore such tactics, but this time I simply had to listen. Here is what I heard.

"If you come back to us and open a savings account, you can enter our savings sweepstakes to maybe double your deposit!" The teller said with a smile. I felt truely sorry for her, and for everyone trying to make the best of things amidst the economic fallout. As I stood there, surrounded by grinning yellow balloons, I had to wonder what foolish person had imagined that I might see fit to hand my savings over to Wamu to enter a monthly drawing."I don't think so," I replied. "Wamu invested too heavily in sub-prime mortgages." To my surprise, the teller exclaimed "Oh, I know! I can't believe that people would accept loans that they couldn't afford to pay back!"

So she thought it was entirely the fault of the people who received the loans, rather than the irresponsible lending practices. I considered the time and effort that it would take to explain the concept of predatory lending to this young woman, and decided to end the conversation. Time and energy are valuable commodities, and we must choose our battles carefully, after all.

Wamu has tried to assure its customers that everything is business as usual with its commercials and grinning yellow balloons. Nevertheless, right before the US$1.9 billion bailout by J.P. Morgan Chase, Wamu customers fled the bank with at least US$16.7 billion in deposits. Like many others, I knew that my money was FDIC insured, but somehow that wasn't quite enough to offset the overall sense of insecurity and mistrust. Perhaps more on principle than anything else, I have moved all of my money to a credit union. The credit union doesn't present me with cookies, serve coffee, or surround me with smiling balloons when I drop in, and they don't have sweepstakes that might double my deposit...but they didn't invest in the sub-prime loan feeding frenzy, and isn't that a little more important? It is to me, and I can get my own coffee.

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