On September 25, 2008, the United States Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) seized WaMu's banking operations and placed it into receivership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).[10] The OTS took the action due to the withdrawal of US$16.7billion in deposits during a 9-day bank run (amounting to 9% of the deposits it had held on June 30, 2008).[11] The FDIC sold the banking subsidiaries (minus unsecured debt and equity claims) to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9billion, which had been considering acquiring WaMu as part of a plan internally nicknamed "Project West".[12][13][14] All WaMu branches were rebranded as Chase branches by the end of 2009.[15] The holding company was left with $33billion in assets, and $8billion in debt, after being stripped of its banking subsidiary by the FDIC.[6][7][16][17] The next day, it filed for Chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy in Delaware, where it was incorporated.[7][16]
Regarding total assets under management, WaMu's closure and receivership is the largest bank failure in American financial history.[6][7]
Before the receivership action, it was the sixth-largest bank in the United States.[18]
According to WaMu's 2007 SEC filing, the holding company held assets valued at $327.9billion (~$464 billion in 2023).[19]
On March 20, 2009, WaMu filed suit against the FDIC in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking damages of approximately $13billion (~$17.9 billion in 2023) for an alleged unjustified seizure and unfair low sale price to JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase promptly filed a counterclaim in the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, where the WaMu bankruptcy proceedings had been continuing since the Office of Thrift Supervision's seizure of the holding company's bank subsidiaries.[20][21]
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A savings bank holding company is defined in United States Code: Title 12: Banks and Banking; Section 1842: Definitions; Subsection (l): Savings Bank Holding Company See: 12 U.S.C.§ 1841