Sunday, March 7, 2010

WaMu agreement near

Just a quick note, because this has been a very busy weekend for me.

On Thursday, the judge presiding over the bankruptcy of WMI (the former holding company of Washinton Mutual) postponed a hearing on WMI's dispute with JPMorgan, because lawyers told the court that settlement talks were well advanced.

Casual observers of such matters may not be aware that there was a WMI filing. The operating company itself, WaMu, didn't go bankrupt during those hectic days of the fall of 2008. Rather, the Federal Deposit Insurance Company, acting as receiver, simply seized it and sold “substantially all” WaMu’s assets to JPMorgan Chase, Inc. (JPMC). At the same time, the holding company, WMI, remained in existence, and did file for bankruptcy.

This was all done hectically without a lot of attention to specifics, such as which assets remain with which of those entities. The resulting litigation has generated a lot of paperwork, and some intriguing disputes on contested points of bankruptcy procedure.

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