Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Bank Regulators

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing, “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Bank Regulators,” was the second in a series of Subcommittee hearings examining some of the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis. The second hearing focused on the role of bank regulators in the financial crisis, using as a case history oversight efforts by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) with respect to Washington Mutual Bank and its affiliate, Long Beach Mortgage Company. Washington Mutual Bank, the nation’s largest thrift with $300 billion in assets, $188 billion in deposits and 43,000 employees, was closed by OTS on September 25, 2008, and immediately sold by FDIC to JPMorgan Chase, resulting in the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

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