WaMu is 13th Bank to Fail This Year

WaMu is now the 13th bank to fail so far this year and is the nation’s biggest bank failure on record, ahead of Continental Illinois, which had about $40 billion in assets when it failed during the early part of the 80s S&L crisis in May of 1984.

Washington Mutual was one of the most hard-hit banks during this financial crisis after it made money during the early part of the housing run-up, only to see its fortunes crash as housing prices fell.

Following several ratings agency downgrades earlier this week and a nosedive in the company’s stock, industry analysts had been speculating that the endgame for the embattled bank was imminent.

Those fears sent the thrift’s shares 25% lower in trading during the day on Thursday, and then down another 73% in after-hours following the announcement.

Four banks made bids for WaMu but JPMorgan Chase [[JPM]] won out when the auction was held. Several other institutions, including Wells Fargo [[WFC]], Citigroup [[C]]and HSBC [[HBC]] were also considering purchasing the bank.