JPMorgan Buys WaMu's Deposits as Thrift Is Seized

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, agreed to acquire the deposits of Washington Mutual Inc. for $1.9 billion as the thrift was seized by regulators in the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.

The U.S. government closed Seattle-based Washington Mutual amid customer withdrawals of $16.7 billion since Sept. 15, the Office of Thrift Supervision said in a statement. WaMu had ``insufficient liquidity'' and was in an ``unsound'' condition, the OTS said.

WaMu's fate played out as Congress tried to reach an accord that will ease the global credit crunch, which has already driven Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and IndyMac Bancorp out of business, and Bear Stearns Cos. and Merrill Lynch & Co. into hastily arranged rescues. WaMu in March rebuffed a takeover offer from JPMorgan that WaMu valued at $4 a share. In most bank seizures, little or nothing is left for shareholders.

``JPMorgan is getting a steal compared with what they were going to pay,'' said Scott Adams, a pension and investment analyst at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Oakland, California, which owns WaMu shares. ``It's very tragic.''

WaMu collapsed after its credit rating was slashed to junk and potential suitors passed on making a bid. Facing $19 billion of losses on soured mortgage loans, the lender put itself up for sale last week.

New York-based JPMorgan won't acquire liabilities of the lender, including claims by shareholders and subordinated and senior debt holders, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.

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