WORLD> America
JPMorgan to buy Washington Mutual deposits
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-26 10:56

A transaction would follow more than a week of negotiations over the fate of Seattle-based Washington Mutual, which attracted interest from several large North American and European banks, as well as private equity firms, despite soaring mortgage losses and evaporating investor confidence.

Washington Mutual's $227 billion book of real estate loans, more than half of which comes from home equity loans, and adjustable-rate and subprime mortgages now considered risky, ensconced the thrift on the critical list of financial institutions needing help, analysts said.

Its fate appeared to grow more precarious after problems with mortgage-related debt led to last week's bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and the near demise of insurance company American International Group Inc.

The addition of Washington Mutual would make JPMorgan close in size to Citigroup Inc, now the largest US bank by assets. It would trail Bank of America Corp assuming that bank, which now ranks second in assets, completes its planned purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis has also been credited with helping steady Wall Street, or at least reduce damage, with his acquisitions this year of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial Corp, the troubled mortgage lender that was once the nation's largest.

It was not immediately clear how much of Washington Mutual's loans might have been eligible for the bailout. The thrift has a significant presence in California and Florida, two of the states hardest hit by the nation's housing crisis. It also has a significant presence in the New York City area.

The thrift had long been expected to sell itself after amassing $6.3 billion of losses in the previous three quarters. It had also projected $19 billion of mortgage losses through 2011, but many analysts said that was too low.

Washington Mutual earlier this month ousted Chief Executive Kerry Killinger, who spearheaded the thrift's growth as well as its expansion in subprime and other risky mortgages, and replaced him with Alan Fishman, the former chief executive of Brooklyn, New York's Independence Community Bank Corp.

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