WaMu on the brink of disaster: has agreement with regulators

You have probably heard by now that Washington Mutual ousted its embattled CEO Kerry Kilinger and replaced him with former Sovereign Bancorp CFO Alan Fishman. But, what you have not heard is that WaMu has signed an agreement with the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) which requires WaMu to provide business plans and forecasts for

What if a large US regional bank goes to the wall?

I fully anticipate this will happen, so the question becomes: what will the Fed do? The FDIC stepped in at two banks over the weekend, 1st National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank. These banks failed as a result of construction loans in real estate bust regions of the US. No, surprise there. This

Does the FDIC have enough money?

Given the fact that the FDIC lost a massive $10.7 billion on the IndyMac transaction, I am re-posting this blurb from July.

I said then, I still believe, the FDIC needs a lot more money or it will be bust. Sheila Bair has already requested $500 billion. See the WSJ article “Bill Seeks to Let FDIC Borrow up to $500 Billion.”