Full Description

Washington Mutual, Inc. (Washington Mutual) is a consumer and small business banking company with operations in United States markets. The Company is a savings and loan holding company. It owns two banking subsidiaries, Washington Mutual Bank (WMB) and Washington Mutual Bank fsb (WMBfsb), as well as numerous non-bank subsidiaries. The Company operates in four segments: the Retail Banking Group, which operates a retail bank network of 2,257 stores in California, Florida, Texas, New York, Washington, Illinois, Oregon, New Jersey, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Connecticut; the Card Services Group, which operates a nationwide credit card lending business; the Commercial Group, which conducts a multi-family and commercial real estate lending business in selected markets, and the Home Loans Group, which engages in nationwide single-family residential real estate lending, servicing and capital markets activities. In addition, the Corporate Support/Treasury and Other includes the community lending and investment operations, the Treasury function, the Corporate Support function and the Enterprise Risk Management function. In September 2008, JPMorgan Chase & Co. acquired all deposits, assets and certain liabilities of Washington Mutual banking operations from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In September 2008, the Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Retail Banking Group

The principal activities of the Retail Banking Group include offering line of deposit and other retail banking products and services to consumers and small businesses; holding the substantial majority of the Company’s held for investment portfolios of home loans, home equity loans and home equity lines of credit (but not the Company’s held for investment portfolios of home loans, home equity loans and home equity lines of credit made to higher risk borrowers through the subprime mortgage channel); originating home equity loans and lines of credit, and providing investment advisory and brokerage services, sales of annuities and other financial services. Deposit products offered to consumers and small businesses include the Company’s signature free checking and interest-bearing Platinum checking accounts, as well as other personal checking, savings, money market deposit and time deposit accounts. Many products are offered in retail banking stores and online. Financial consultants provide investment advisory and securities brokerage services to the public.

Card Services Group

The Card Services Group manages the Company’s credit card operations. The segment’s principal activities include issuing credit cards; either holding outstanding balances on credit cards in portfolio or securitizing and selling them; servicing credit card accounts, and providing other cardholder services. Credit card balances that are held in the Company’s loan portfolio generate interest income from finance charges on outstanding card balances, and noninterest income from the collection of fees associated with the credit card portfolio, such as performance fees (late, overlimit and returned check charges) and cash advance and balance transfer fees.

Commercial Group

The principal activities of the Commercial Group include providing financing to developers and investors, or acquiring loans for the purchase or refinancing of multi-family dwellings and other commercial properties; either holding multi-family and other commercial real estate loans in portfolio or selling these loans while retaining the servicing rights, and providing deposit services to commercial customers.

Home Loans Group

The principal activities of the Home Loans Group include the origination, fulfillment and servicing of home loans; the origination, fulfillment and servicing of home equity loans and lines of credit; managing the Company’s capital markets operations, which includes the buying and selling of all types of real estate secured loans in the secondary market, and holding the Company’s held for investment portfolios of home loans, home equity loans and home equity lines of credit. The segment offers a variety of real estate secured residential loan products and services. Such loans are held in portfolio by the Home Loans Group, sold to secondary market participants or transferred through inter-segment sales to the Retail Banking Group.

Corporate Support/Treasury and Other

The principal activities of the Corporate Support/Treasury and Other category include the management of the Company’s interest rate risk, liquidity position and capital; enterprise-wide management of the identification, measurement, monitoring, control and reporting of credit, market and operational risk; community lending and investment activities, which help fund the development of affordable housing units in traditionally underserved communities; general corporate overhead costs associated with the Company’s facilities, legal, accounting and finance functions, human resources and technology services, and costs that the Company did not consider when evaluating the performance of the Company’s four operating segments. The activities also include the impact of changes in the unallocated allowance for loan losses; the net impact of funds transfer pricing for loan and deposit balances, and items associated with transfers of loans from the Retail Banking Group to the Home Loans Group.