Washington Mutual prided itself on a culture of classism. Ad campaigns depicted "regular people" railing against "The Man". Their populist policies of free checking, waived overdraft fees, and negative amortization loans blew up when the government seized it for bad banking practices.
Look at this commercial for the overt message; bankers are greedy, old, white males...and they're out of touch.
WaMu became ``unsound'' after customers withdrew $16.7 billion since Sept. 16, the Office of Thrift Supervision said yesterday. Branches are open today and depositors have full access to their accounts, Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said.
I'm guessing that a lot of that $16 billion went looking for the very people whom WaMu tried so desperately to vilify.
