As quickly as it happened it was over.
Or is it?
Federal regulators Thursday shut down Washington Mutual, the nation’s sixth largest financial institution by deposits.
The failure of WaMU is the largest bank failure in American history.
But as quickly as regulators from the Office of Thrift Supervision shut it down, J.P. MorganChase, the country’s second-largest bank by deposits, stepped in to buy WaMU’s assets.
Of the 14 bank failures this year — yes, we’re up to 14, now — this was the only regulatory bank takeover to happen on a Thursday.
The typical process involves regulators waiting until a bank closes under its normal operating hours on a Friday, giving them and the acquiring bank the weekend to do all the accounting work and migrate bank processes and systems over to the acquiring bank.
But not WaMU.
This quick takeover seems to demonstrate just how troubled this institution was.
And how its failure, without speedy action, could have disastrous consequences.