WaMu: The forgotten bank failure

by Moe Bedard · 1 comment

in Mortgage Servicers

“We’re still waiting to see how the Wachovia and Washington Mutual portfolios play out,” said Brian Olasov, who studies the banking industry as managing director at law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge. “We’ve got a big bulge in resets still to come.”

WaMu and Wachovia, now part of Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), helped stoke the housing bubble by issuing tens of billions of dollars of so-called option adjustable rate mortgages. Option ARMs, as they are known, were typically made with little or no documentation and allowed borrowers to underpay in early years — at the expense of much higher monthly payments later.

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1 Cindy Murray September 9, 2009 at 6:43 am

WAMU is part of Chase, not wachovia. Chase is being very aggressive with its credit card modifications and not friendly by any stretch of the imagination on any front. Just thought I would throw that tidbit in.. At least with a little nudging B of A is trying a little harder to begin to accommodate… I had a B of A credit card, and they were most willing to establish a workable plan with me.. Chase/WAMU on the other hand is using totally different strong arm tactics….. and hurting those that have no problem as well. I am a real estate professional who like many others was hit by the downslide early on… While I am recovering better than some, it remains, the little people, the working folks are the ones chase want to claim as trophies, not positive achievements. No one wins with that logic trail..Shame, Shame, Shame on them….

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