[5][6][7][8][9] 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).

[11] The FDIC sold the banking subsidiaries (minus unsecured debt and equity claims) to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion, which had been considering acquiring WaMu as part of a plan internally nicknamed "Project West".

Claims of the subsidiary bank's equity holders, senior and subordinated debt (all primarily owned by the holding company) were not assumed by JPMorgan Chase.

In April 1982, WaMu purchased the brokerage firm Murphey Favre for undisclosed amount in cash[27] and demutualized the following year, converting into a capital stock savings bank.

[60] In December 1991, WaMu announced the pending acquisition of both Washington state branch offices of the California-based World Savings and Loan Association of America, a subsidiary of Golden West Financial, for an undisclosed amount.

In April 1991, WaMu announced the pending acquisition of the 25 offices in the Portland, Oregon / Vancouver, Washington area from the failing New York–based CrossLand Savings Bank, a subsidiary of Brooklyn Bancorp, for an undisclosed amount.

[55] CrossLand had previously entered Oregon (and three other states) through the relatively recent acquisition of the troubled Utah-based Western Savings and Loan Association.

As a result of the Pacific First acquisition in April 1993, WaMu became the fourth largest banking institution based upon consumer deposits within the state of Oregon.

[92][93] In March 1994, WaMu announced that they were planning to expand into the state of Idaho by building new branch offices inside Fred Meyer supermarket stores with the first three being opened in the Boise-area in July and August.

In February 1997, the Chatsworth-based Great Western Financial, the holding company for second largest thrift in the nation Great Western Bank, found itself the target of a hostile takeover attempt of arch-rival H. F. Ahmanson & Co., the holding company for the largest thrift in the nation Home Savings of America, that would have involved $5.8 billion (~$10.2 billion in 2023) worth of stock.

[138] In March 1998, WaMu announced the pending acquisition of the Irwindale-based H. F. Ahmanson & Company with its Home Savings of America subsidiary for approximately $10 billion in stock.

In April 2001, WaMu announced the pending acquisition of the Columbia, South Carolina–based Fleet Mortgage Corporation from FleetBoston Financial for $660 million (~$1.08 billion in 2023) in cash.

In 2005, chairman and chief executive officer Kerry Killinger said that lack of company-issued credit cards was a "major hole in our product line.

Complex mortgages and credit cards had terms that made it easy for the least creditworthy borrowers to get financing, a strategy the bank extended in big cities, including Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

[188] In March 2008, on the same weekend that JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon negotiated the takeover of Bear Stearns, he secretly dispatched members of his team to Seattle to meet with WaMu executives, urging them to consider a quick deal.

This angered many investors, as TPG's investment would dilute the holdings of existing shareholders, and as WaMu executives excluded mortgage losses from computing bonuses.

Alan H. Fishman, chairman of mortgage broker Meridian Capital Group, and a former chief operating officer of Sovereign Bank, was named the new CEO for 17 days.

[192] While WaMu publicly insisted it could stay independent, earlier in the month it had quietly hired Goldman Sachs to identify potential bidders.

[18] At the same time, WaMu suffered a massive run (mostly via electronic banking over the internet and wire transfer [citation needed]); customers pulled out $16.7 billion in deposits in a ten-day span.

On the morning of Thursday, September 25 (which happened to be the 119th anniversary of WaMu's establishment), regulators informed officials at JPMorgan Chase that they had won the auction.

[18] On Thursday night (shortly after the close of business on the West Coast), the Office of Thrift Supervision seized WaMu Bank and placed it into the receivership of the FDIC.

All of the Motions to Disband the Committee of Equity Security Holders were denied on January 28, 2010, by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary F. Walrath, District of Delaware.

[211][212] On July 20, 2010, bankruptcy judge Mary Walrath approved a motion of the EC for an examiner to investigate potential legal claims and assets of WMI, handing a victory to shareholders.

Trustee Roberta A. DeAngelis appointed veteran bankruptcy examiner and McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP partner Joshua R. Hochberg to conduct a probe into the proposed settlement between WMI, JPMorgan Chase and the FDIC.

Hochberg is a partner in McKenna Long & Aldridge's Washington office whose practice focuses on individual and corporate white collar defense, internal investigations and compliance.

[214] On August 10, 2010, the bankruptcy judge rejected WaMu Inc.'s effort to obtain personal financial information from shareholders demanding that the company schedule an annual meeting.

On December 12, the court decided to exclude the examiner's report during the plan confirmation hearings, saying it can't be considered expert testimony or submitted as evidence unless it is subject to questioning to determine the basis of its conclusions.

Judge Mary Walrath focused many of her criticisms on the company's releases of liability granted to directors, officers and others including some hedge funds, who she said did not contribute anything to the settlement.

Judge Mary F. Walrath wrote that four hedge funds that had played a role in WaMu's restructuring might have received confidential information that could have been used to trade improperly in the bank's debt.

[218] A seventh plan of reorganization was announced in February 2012[219][220] and the company finally emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy the following month as WMI Holdings Corporation.