I need help sending out information about Wamu to all of these emails...I've been sending out multiple emails daily and now I'm being blocked from Bloomberg. What I do is take information people have put together and send it out. For ex. http://wamustory.com/ , http://wamuqd.com/ , http://www.wamu-shareholders-resources.com/wamued.html , http://wamuequity.org/history.html , court documents, and any PR's that are put together I'll send those out also. I have multiple accounts set up to send them out from. The more people emailing, the better...
This is something new I'll be sending out...Big and some others put this together over on yahoo and I just cut and pasted. Make sure you put the wamustory, etc. links at the bottom of each email..Also include;
So.. as we have all been told over and over again "Washington Mutual's toxic mortgages were the reason it had liquidity problems"
Okay.. so we may not agree with the statement above..however lets run with it and say for one second that we want to believe its true. Imagine (without getting sick that you are a JPM lawyer and that is your strongest defense). How do you explain the following:
In the link above (2nd one) he actually completely diverts the question about what brought down WAMU.
"Asked about his role in the mortgage problems that brought WaMu down, Schneider said, "There will be never-ending discussion around home lending, and what I'm focused on now is the retail side and making sure we do the integration well."
So we (JPMC) were able to acquire WMB for the low 1.89 Billion the FDIC sold it to us for. Now we are aware that we will have to write off huge loses becuase of the toxic mortgages... and we have a chance to clear house (dismiss all WMB employees) yet lets bring on David Schneider.
Wait... did you notice Steve Rotella signed his offer letter. Isn't Rotella under the scrutiny of the Texas Action for serving as a mole????
So... I find it interesting that Rotella COO for WMB was the person who signed David's offer letter. Does anyone else find this interesting. Also keep in mind that Rotella left JPM in 2004 for WAMU.Last I can find on Rotella is his name in the Texas Action.
Rotella was closely linked to Schneider's hiring... Here’s what the Chief Operating Officer said about David Schneider when he was hired:
“David Schneider has a proven track record of success in leading and growing a national home lending business, as well as solid experience with cross selling home loans across a retail banking network and other distribution channels.”
Ummm Rotella... you want to reword that? It's alright I guess Killinger said the same... so your not alone.
Remember: in the most recent filing, five ex-JPM people were named: Stephen Rotella, Taj Bindra, John Berens, Youyi Chen, and Bill Murray. Add to that David Schneider. All six of these people were part of the Home Loans Group. And all are mentioned in this article.
To follow up on that point.. for those of you who are not aware... all of them came from JPM!
Taj Bindra: Bindra was executive vice president for home loans finance and servicing operations at WaMu. He joined the company in late 2004 from JP Morgan Chase, where WaMu also recruited president and chief operating officer Stephen Rotella. (Notice the 2004 time frame again)
Youyi Chen: Youyi Chen, Ph.D., leaded the Mortgage Portfolio Management and Research Group. Under his strong leadership, this group was be responsible for consumer behavioral research into pricing sensitivity; prepayment modeling and analysis; and portfolio management including the management of pricing, risk analytics and funding strategies. Most recently, he served as a senior vice president responsible for managing the interest rate risks of JP Morgan Chase's mortgage servicing rights (MSR) portfolio.
Bill Murray: Bill Murray, a mortgage business veteran, will become division finance officer of Mortgage Servicing on March 1. In this role, Murray will be responsible for forecasting, planning, reporting, risk analytics, communication, and performance management for MSR and Service Delivery. He will be located in the company's New York City office. At his former company,JPM; Murray led the MSR valuation, pricing and reporting functions for the Capital Markets group.
"We're very pleased to have recruited such fine talent to our Home Loans team, and we're confident we'll soon find a seasoned mortgage executive to lead this group going forward. In the meantime, I look forward to working with this team, whom I know very well, to ensure we sustain the excellent progress that Craig Chapman has made in transforming our mortgage business," said Rotella."
You don't say Rotella is speaking on the hires. And he knows them very well...great!
They had a five year plan in place.... seems like they accomplished their goal early... it only took about 4.5 years to tarnish WAMU's reputation with mortgages enough for the OTS/FDIC to step in.
Another name to keep in mind is Dale L. George. "Dale George, a former WaMu senior risk manager who spoke exclusively to ABC News, explained that risk managers are like the brakes on a car. WaMu executives "took the brakes off and drove over a cliff," he said."
George was fired..... "WaMu denied any wrongdoing and said the firing wasn't retaliatory."
Interesting... I wonder if he was fired by an ex-JPM employee!
David Schneider was aware that there were concerns regarding the mortgages that were going through. If sent in to destroy WAMU then he probably would have been quoted saying something like:
"These mortgages have been considered more safe and sound for portfolio lenders than many fixed rate mortgages"
SAFE AND SOUND.... huh?
So anyway I found this as well(not sure of date but seems to be around 2004/2005):
"Most recently, two more CitiMortgage veterans joined Washington Mutual in September: Cheryl Feltgen, chief credit officer for home loans; and Steve Stein, senior vice president of retail mortgage lending."
So if the above statement is correct; then it would be safe to assume Stein and Schneider worked together in mortgage lending. Oh...thats given I'm sure one being the President of Home Loans and one being Vice President of Retail Mortgage Lending.(1a)
Hmm.. how about this link from 3/30/2009?
"A news conference is planned Tuesday morning at the Phoenix office. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Chase home loan executives David Schneider and Steve Stein, and JPMorgan Chase Arizona Chairman and CEO Joe Stewart are scheduled to participate. http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/s...
Wait a second???
You mean not only did they take Schneider on board despite the 'job' he did while with WAMU but they also took on WAMU's VP of Retail Mortgage Lending? This is confusing to me... why keep the players that were responsible for mortgages if that was the reason WAMU failed? And why put them together. Oh well.....
David Schneider, hired by "MOLE" Rotella; Ex-JPMer. Schneider works with Steve Stein while at WAMU; specifically handling mortgages. Schneider shares in 2006 that things with mortgages are going well and that his approach is safe (see above). Two years later, WaMu became the largest bank failure in U.S. history and both Stein and Schneider are hired by JPM to head up mortgages.
"The company also said it recently added three new senior leaders to the mortgage unit. They are: John Berens, senior vice president, Service Delivery; Youyi Chen, senior vice president, Mortgage Portfolio Management and Research; and Bill Murray, senior vice president and division finance officer, Mortgage Servicing. All three came to the company from JP Morgan Chase and report to Taj Bindra, executive vice president, Home Loans Finance and Servicing Operations."
It looks like to me that Bindra was the "Ranger", and the other three were the "rest troops" being recruited from JPM. All these were planned and organized.
Expanding Home Loans Team
John Berens will join WaMu on March 7 to manage the service delivery team for the company's Home Loans division. Berens has 22 years of experience in mortgage servicing, including the prime, non-prime and home equity business, as well as significant expertise in managing default and collections groups. In his previous position, he served as senior vice president of default servicing for a $550 billion portfolio in mortgage products and managed a staff of more than 2,000 employees.
Youyi Chen, Ph.D., leads the newly created Mortgage Portfolio Management and Research Group. Under his strong leadership, this group will be responsible for consumer behavioral research into pricing sensitivity; prepayment modeling and analysis; and portfolio management including the management of pricing, risk analytics and funding strategies. Most recently, he served as a senior vice president responsible for managing the interest rate risks of JP Morgan Chase's mortgage servicing rights (MSR) portfolio.
Bill Murray, a mortgage business veteran, will become division finance officer of Mortgage Servicing on March 1. In this role, Murray will be responsible for forecasting, planning, reporting, risk analytics, communication, and performance management for MSR and Service Delivery. He will be located in the company's New York City office. At his former company, Murray led the MSR valuation, pricing and reporting functions for the Capital Markets group.
Why was WaMu hiring all of these ex-JPM guys in the first place? Was it Rotella bringing them in?
Rotella was the 2nd high-power person in WaMu back in few years, he could support hiring his "home loan expansion team" by claiming that the new team could offer important expertise learned in JPMC.
Rotella appears to be the front runner on a shortlist of people that may fit the 'mole' scenario put forth in the Texas Action Suit.
“According to yet another longtime executive, Rotella became involved more than most top bank executives when the mortgage sales staff complained about applications that were declined. More than once, Rotella pressured credit officers to reverse their decisions, this executive said. "Steve Rotella created a culture of fear" WaMu had five chief credit officers during the less than 4 years Rotella was at the bank.
Which brings me to my next point....
"WMB had 5 chief credit officers during the less than 4 years Rotella was at the bank"
I've searched and searched for these 5 Chief Credit Officers (CCO) and the only one I could locate was: John McMurray
This find was of particular interest to me because it is a direct link to one of the 'Chief Credit Officers" that Rotella had pressured to reverse decisions on faulty loans...or so the story goes.
So John was a "Cheif Credit Officer" and then John was promoted to Chief Risk Officer. John replaced Ron Cathcart who resigned after having worked with WMB from 2004 until 4/2008. Ron's resignation motive was never stated and remains unclear. John who was a chief credit officer interacted with Rotella and played a large role in the 'toxic mortgages' that were at the 'root of WMB's unwinding', yet he was promoted.
1. WMB hires Rotella from JPM 2. Rotella hires Schneider 3. 5 Chief Credit Officers depart their position during Rotella's less than four year run (for unknown reasons) 4. One of the chief credit officers who stood, John, is promoted to that of Chief Risk Officer despite his 'poor' success as a credit officer and the dwindling status of WMB 5. John remains Chief Risk Officer for 3 and a half months then WMB is seized by OTS. As Chief Risk Officer and Chief Credit Officer some of his responsibilities included: "leading the company's overall strategy and working with the business to achieve appropriate balance between risk and expected return."
So another player who interacted with Rotella (and his interesting strategies/priorities) gets promoted, has the major responsibility of ensuring WMB manages their risks properly, WMB is said to have failed because of giving out 'risky loans'; inclusive of option arms. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wamu-fails-sold-to-jp-morgan-chase-for-19-billion
So the person that was suppose to manage risk; does not (if in fact WMB failed because of high risk lending) the bank fails. Then JPM keeps him; someone that had always played a part in containing/eliminating risk for WMB.
"JP Morgan will be hiring several senior Washington Mutual executives ...John McMurray, chief enterprise risk officer; David Schneider, president, home loans"
Take the person who was hired by Rotella and keep him as head of retail banking with your team. Then take one of the people that directly interacted with Rotella about lending, the person that is responsible for assessing risk and keep him (though he clearly failed) and keep him in charge of assessing risk.
This indicates one of two things to me:
1. JPM doesn't believe that WMB failed because of risky loans and toxic mortgages and wanted to keep the skilled people (thinking it wouldn't come back to bite them)
2. JPM thinks/knows that they owe these people a bit of gratitude for the damage they did internally at WMB, allowing for the OTS/FDIC to provide JPM with WMB for a discounted rate.
Appears John McMurray has left JPM.
Also the person he had replaced as Chief Risk Officer at WAMU (who resigned) is listed as a defendant now in a class action suit against WAMU.
Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle Announces Management Changes 04/30/2009 Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle announced that John P. McMurray will join as senior vice president, chief risk officer effective May 1, 2009. Mr. McMurray has been performing contract services for the Seattle Bank since December 2008. Mr. McMurray formerly served as chief enterprise risk officer for Washington Mutual Bank, F.S.B., a division of JPMorgan Chase NA. The Seattle Bank's current senior vice president"
--"McMurray has been performing contract work since December 2008"--
So it appears McMurray wasn't too keen on staying with JPM despite being given an opportunity to do so. McMurray was only one of a few listed WMB employees who would be kept on board. ----------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Also....
"on July 22, WaMu held a conference call to discuss the Company’s second quarter 2008 financial results. Defendants Killinger and Casey participated in the call along with WaMu’s new Chief Enterprise Risk Officer John McMurray. During the call, Killinger, Casey and Murray reviewed the results set forth in the Company’s press release. They also explained that, in 2008, the Company’s Option ARM loans experienced the fastest rise in delinquency rates and that they expected “other prime loans, which are mostly 5 and 7 year hybrids, to follow Option ARMs closely.” According to McMurray, home equity loans and subprime mortgages had experienced high delinquency rates during the late 2006 to late 2007 time period."
So Rotella comes in in 2004, hires Schneider in 2005, then the year after things start to crumble. And who is the person that explains this during conference calls; McMurray the former Chief Credit Officer recently promoted to Chief Risk Officer.
*Keep in mind, Rotella's offer letter from WMB was for 500k (link just so happens to be disabled at this time, ODD). And his total compensation for 2005 was in fact 2.3 Million. Not a bad first year?
So he makes 4x+ his salary during his first year, was hired by Rotella to run the Home Loans Division, and from that moment things start to go downhill for WMB's mortgage lending.....
Then JPM decides he is someone worth keeping on board?
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