Money Beat

From Your Wallet to Wall Street: The Money News That Matters to You From the ABC News Business Team

« Previous | Main | Next »

WaMu's Fighting Words

September 12, 2008 10:14 AM

ABC News' Alice Gomstyn reports: The time has come: WaMu is fighting back.

When I was working on a story Wednesday about analysts questioning whether the housing crisis would sink Washington Mutual, the bank stayed mum. But by Thursday evening, it had issued not one but two statements defending its financial health.

Ap_wamu_080911_main The first was a forecast for the bank’s third-quarter performance. The bank said that it expects to write off less in bad loans this quarter than in the quarter before -- $4.5 billion vs. $5.9 billion.

That might be cold comfort to some,  but the bank also said that, despite the expected write-offs, it “continues to be confident that it has sufficient liquidity and capital to support its operations while it returns to profitability.”

WaMu’s second statement, issued about two hours later, disputed the decision by the credit rating agency Moody’s to lower the bank’s investment grading.

The bank called Moody’s move “inconsistent with the company’s current financial condition.”

“The action by Moody’s appears to reflect the current uncertainty in the markets, rather than a thorough evaluation of Washington Mutual’s business, the strength of its national franchise and the steps it is taking to return to profitability,” the bank said.

WaMu, no doubt, is attempting to quell the perception that it's yet another financial firm headed for a meltdown, but it’s unclear how effective its efforts will be. Fred Cannon, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., suggested to The Wall Street Journal that the efforts could backfire.

"By needing to make the statement,” he said, “it underscores a lot of the concerns.”

Stay tuned.

September 12, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (57)

User Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Better than any other bank I have dealt with.
Very easy to deal with, and when I did have one minor issue they took care of it quickly. You can't beat their fees either. (There are none)

Posted by: Jon | Sep 13, 2008 2:54:46 PM

I own preferred stock and believe WM is a good bank. Go WAMU

Posted by: John | Sep 13, 2008 7:23:58 PM

I absolutely L O V E WaMu. They have excellent customer service and I know people that work there and it's a great place to work.

Posted by: Shawn | Sep 13, 2008 10:24:12 PM

let them fail

Posted by: bd1173 | Sep 13, 2008 10:40:45 PM

I too love WaMu. Have had my checking, savings and mortgage with them for years. They are top notch. Employees are great. Love their bank branches, not stuffy or arrogant. Whenever I need to contact their customer service, my call is answered promptly and professionally and I get the answers I need. Seems to me that the complainers on this thread, for the most part, are the unfortunate people who can't handle their finances and blame banks instead. Get a life. WaMu will survive and thrive.

Posted by: mapjo11 | Sep 13, 2008 10:57:44 PM

And, you know, I even bought a chunk of stock recently. What a deal! Great company that puts customers first and, to me, that's a winner.

Posted by: mapjo11 | Sep 13, 2008 11:05:27 PM

banks are evil, capitalism is not humane

Posted by: susej tsirhc | Sep 13, 2008 11:14:39 PM

I worked for Washington Mutual Finance for 2 years before Citi bought us out. By far Washington Mutual had the wost managers and VPs. They were cutthroat and didn't have a clue about how to run a business. I think that is the reason they had to sell because they could never get things right the first time. The business made a lot of mistakes and then they sold it to Citi. Thank God.

Posted by: Candi Shell | Sep 13, 2008 11:57:41 PM

I think most of the adverse comments here about Washington Mutual have been posted by losers with Mickey Mouse Accounts. The smaller the balance, the more service and recognition they demand. Washington Mutual had a policy that if a customer walked in the front door and needed or wanted a loan, they got it. If the customer was declined, that same customer would be posting here. I have been in the real estate business for 35 years at the same address with the same telephone number. I banked with Home S&L and then Washington Mutual after they acquired Home. My banking needs are rather simple however I do have large certificates of deposit. I do not do complicated transactions as transfering this to that and that to this. Often customers are concerned about their importantance again as I said with their Mickey Mouse accounts. They move money here, check balances there, a loan here and a credit card there. The only bad thing I see these days with Washington Mutual is that they don't have private banking so that serious savers and investors don't have to deal with those who have nickle and dime accounts and they they are millionaires. It is also illegal to cause a run on the bank and when you state that they are going under and get your money out now, you are contributing to the problem. Now let's hear from the Mousekateers as soon as they are done checking their balances.

Posted by: Andrew Betancourt | Sep 14, 2008 12:54:45 AM

All this talk about Wama. I have a mtg with them and my accounts for 10 years and they have been great.

You want to look at a crooked bank you look at JP MOrgan Chase bank. They closed a loan with me promised me a certificate of occupancy on new construction loan I recinded the loan after I was locked out they did not do that. Their guldlines stated on Zippy on the internet they needed a cert of occupancy. Now they are trying to forclose saying they funded theloan in good faith. They say I singed the loan docs but the the clause also states that I must occupy witihin 60 days. I was locked out for 5 months. You want to talk about deceit and fraud and bad banks you look at JP Morgan Bank. At least Wamu would not mistakes like this. Anyone who wants to follow the story on the lawsuite against Jp Morgan a lawsuite is being filed In Broward county Florida.

Posted by: AJ | Sep 14, 2008 7:47:37 AM

I am not wamu customer but it's very sad that some folks are happy and in praise for down fall of wamu. I would categorize such folks with chavez who hates America and everything to do with it, yet it's his number one oil customer. That's unpatriotic and criminal. Failing of wamu means jobless brothers and sisters and disary to the economy which is already weak.

Posted by: peter | Sep 14, 2008 8:13:52 AM

WAKEUP! It is not the quality of service that will sink WAMU. It is poor banking practices that put the bank and therefore large deposits at risk. WAMU will fail soon. Insiders see it, stock plummets, Record CDS spread, CEO ousted, OTS memo, Junk status, TPG death spiral financing, Secret meetings, EOQ update... Get your WAMU deposits below FDIC guidelines and expect slower payout as FDIC refills coffers.

Posted by: Insider | Sep 14, 2008 12:01:59 PM

I worked at a help desk at WaMu in Illinois for 3 years, then I was laid off. After purchasing a number of mortgage companies, WaMu started downsizing and of course all the jobs that could be, were outsourced to India. It's a poorly managed company, and they let total incompetents become team leaders. I even had my team leader chase me into the bathroom to ask why I had left my desk. Good riddance to a company yhayt is oinly interested in thier own bottom line.

Please elect Democrats in the upcoming election, they are not perfect, but they do tend to focus more in the average consumer and less on big business, oil companies, etc. like the Republicans - Bush, McCain, they are all the same, no matter how McCain tries to distance himself from Bush.

We need a government that cares about people more than big business and that means Democrats.

Posted by: Michelle T | Sep 14, 2008 12:16:27 PM

I've been with WaMu for ten year now & have never had any bad experiences. They've been the most pleasant, professional bank I've ever done business with. Regarding another comment.. Yes! SunTrust does SUCK!

Posted by: Kathie Ingram | Sep 14, 2008 4:02:32 PM

I'd like to know why these banks are now holding money for a full two days now.....Sound like their messing around with people's money. I wish one of these reporters would investigate that as another tactic that these banks are using to mess with their accounting.

Posted by: Facti | Sep 14, 2008 5:24:14 PM

I banked with Western before it was bought off by Washington Mutual. Their customer service took a huge dive. We closed the accounts years ago and they tried to stall us for hours.

Posted by: cc | Sep 14, 2008 8:22:23 PM

WAMU just needs to get with the program like B of A. You know, start doing things like holding Social Security deposits until 9 am so as to create a 9 hour window of opportunity to overdraft seniors bank accounts and of course in typical B of A fashion, dont tell them your making the change. They could also try not posting banking information to customers internet portals for 2 or 3 days so they cannot keep good track of their accounts and make more overdrafts. Then there's one of my favorites, move your mailing center to the other side of the country so the overdraft NSF notices take a good 4-5 days to get to the customer causing all kinds of collateral damage.....at $35 a pop. I could go on all day with these, remember last year when all the banks first had trouble except one, that was B of A and that was the month they made a banking policy change to ATM cards. Before that month if you tried to use your ATM debit card to pay for something and didnt have funds it would automatically refuse the charge right there on the spot, that was the month they started paying those into overdraft so as to collect the $30-35 fee and they made billions of dollars fleecing their customers that month. Two months later they slide just like everyone else. Anyway, WAMU says they are making some changes to restore them to profitability........bet they hired someone from B of A.

Posted by: wheelerx | Sep 15, 2008 3:09:26 AM

WAMU deserves to go. Years ago I had purchased with a partner a home off Long Island that is only accessible by ferry(the houses are connected by walks, no cars).For a good part of the year, the winter, access is limited. My partner and I broke up and the home was sold in November. That following January WAMU called me in the dead of winter to inform me that I was going into foreclosure and they would seize the house(good luck-the bay froze over and so did ferry service). They had already been sent a payoff check but refused to acknowledge it as a full payoff even though their own corporate letterhead gave us instructions on the payoff amount with per diem. They obliterated my credit for two years until finally I got through to someone at their corporate offices in Seattle(took MANY phone calls for this) who said they would never send out a doc like that and then changed her tune and was all apologetic when I faxed her the document proving my case. The bottom line is that they are poor listeners and poor bookkeepers who have been propped up and placed in a position to influence people's lives. They do not respect that honor(it's called service) and now they are bearing the brunt of it, much like the rest of the banking system. It is only when we will have oversight to prevent this kind of client abuse(and a restoration of the principle of customer service) to where we as Americans will see the health of our financial system restored. We as Americans deserve better and we have known that. It is now our responsibility to demand it and carry forward, leaving the carcasses of those who violate our trust(WAMU, etc.) behind.

Posted by: Art Sample | Sep 15, 2008 10:34:38 AM

I had a Wamu credit card, shredded it when it became clear that Wamu would not stop sending paper statements(I bank and pay all bills online). In this day of rampant identity theft I would rather not have a piece of paper with my name, address, and credit card number printed on it sitting in a box at the end of my driveway for someone to steal. I was told it is "against company policy" not to send paper statements. Stupid. Buh-bye.

Posted by: dj | Sep 16, 2008 7:48:16 AM

My wife and I have been with WAMU for several years now and we've been very, very happy and appreciative with their service and people. I'm sure all banks have their pluses and minuses but in my fifty-some years I've found WAMU the most caring and honorable bank to date. I even closed my Wells Fargo account because of the treatment (or lack of it) that we received from them. I will continue to wahoo wamu and hope that everything works out well!

Posted by: Oking | Sep 17, 2008 7:49:55 PM

This is a sensationalist media fed witch hunt. As of last week, WAMU had $50 billion in liquidity, an over $120 billion deposit base, and the write off for the next quarter will be less than they originally projected. If the media were to shut down all the "Is WAMU next?" rhetoric, WAMU will easily weather the storm, and be back in the black in 2 years. However, since the media likes the story (and news is entertainment), they will scare the out of everyone, then see if they can run the bank out of business. It's a very sad pack mentality that may end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. If influential people in government or media could step in and be a calming influence, WAMU will be able to weather the storm. 99% of the articles that are asking if WAMU is next make no reference to actual numbers, or to logic.

Posted by: InvestVI | Sep 17, 2008 10:42:10 PM

WaMu's possibile failure has alot to do with customer service at the front end as well as the back side. Approving home loans too families that could never repay, created this mess. It is sad that many are losing their American Dream.

I feel that our country has failed to educate the graduates out of High School on the importance of finances. Truth be told unless you take control of your money whatever the amount you will always have problems. That is true for the rich as well as the poor. You don't hear about the rich because they have more to waste away and the earning compinsate the losses for some time.

When buying a home and you have a down payment you should always have atleast 10k for the EMERGENY FUND for home repairs, fees, etc.

That's All!

Posted by: mike h | Sep 17, 2008 10:55:17 PM

wamu is refusing to give me my account number after a deposit of 50,000.00 and has advised me the branch does not have 50,000.00 cash to pay me since i want to close this account. if i even can without an account number. they keep saying the number is in the mail.....would you believe them? I asked totalk with a manager and was advised the manager is an administrative position and they do not tali with customers.

Posted by: justine may | Sep 17, 2008 10:59:14 PM

wamu is the best bank on the planet.some of the people here on this blog obviously don't understand banking.My suggestion is expect the stock price to rise in the month of jan.,after the election.

Posted by: andy gallagher | Sep 18, 2008 12:00:56 AM

This has nothing to do with that trivial mistake they made on your credit card statement or because they provided poor customer service on your personal checking account. Their problem lies squarely on billions of dollars of exposure to bad home loans, not customer service.

Posted by: Dave B | Sep 18, 2008 1:22:46 AM

Post a comment