Washington Mutual steps back - Bank plans to close 28 branches in area
INSIDE FINANCIAL SERVICES
Washington Mutual steps back - Bank plans to close 28 branches in area
By BECKY YERAK
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published September 8, 2006
Washington Mutual Inc., which moved aggressively into the Chicago market in recent years, is now closing branches in the area.
The Seattle-based bank plans to close 28 of its 172 Chicago-area branches, mainly in Lake and McHenry Counties as well as in other outlying suburbs. An estimated 168 jobs could be affected by the closures.
Washington Mutual made a big splash when it entered the market in 2003 by rapidly opening branches throughout the area. But the company has struggled to win market share in the highly competitive banking market here.
Industry observers have long been waiting for a shakeout to occur, and WaMu has topped many lists for predicted cutbacks.
WaMu's deposit market share in the Chicago area is 0.3 percent, the same as Rockford-based Amcore Bank, which has only about two dozen Chicago-area branches, and Elgin-based EFS Bank, which has about 10.
The retrenchment in the Chicago area is part of a broader consolidation under way by the company, which is in the process of closing 80 poor-performing stores nationwide.
WaMu spokesman Shane Winn said the area branches slated to close are lagging in three areas: household growth, market density potential and financial performance.
"We'll continue to open stores in Chicagoland, as we believe in our ability to succeed here," Winn said.
Do I hear a $37 million? In his 30 or so years as an auctioneer, Joel Langer has sold everything from a Shelby prototype convertible to a bottle of rare cabernet sauvignon to works of art.
So why not hundreds of millions of dollars of bad debt?
Langer's new business venture, Chicago Debt Exchange, on Wednesday will conduct a live auction of about $500 million in commercial, credit card, mortgage and auto loan debt, including some on behalf of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Portfolios being sold include $37 million in bank-card debt, $57 million in phone-bill debt, and Chapter 7 bankruptcy-related home renovation debts of $194,000.
About 150 potential bidders have registered for the event, said Langer, who'd like to hold the events weekly and who gets a fee for each transaction.
"When you don't pay your phone bill, after the phone company is done trying to collect, they package it and sell it to someone else," Langer said in an interview Thursday.
Potential buyers can participate in person at 200 S. Wacker Drive, by phone or the Internet.
Skeptics have said that auctions aren't conducive to buying a debt portfolio.
"The caution that I have is that these are nonperforming consumer loans; these aren't commodities," one debt buyer told trade publication American Banker in a story about Langer's start-up. "It's not like a share in a public company."
Langer expects everybody who buys a portfolio will do due diligence ahead of time.
Indeed, Chicago lawyer Horace Fox, a panel trustee for the U.S. trustee's office and involved in some matters that the auction is trying to resolve, likes the new effort to sell debt.
"Usually, you have to do it the old-fashioned way, filing a lawsuit for each claim, and that is expensive, cumbersome and time-consuming," the Lehman Fox lawyer said Thursday. "The thought is we'd try something that smacks of this century's technology and use the Internet and a simultaneous live auction to sell the debt."
----------
byerak@tribune.com
Washington Mutual steps back - Bank plans to close 28 branches in area
By BECKY YERAK
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published September 8, 2006
Washington Mutual Inc., which moved aggressively into the Chicago market in recent years, is now closing branches in the area.
The Seattle-based bank plans to close 28 of its 172 Chicago-area branches, mainly in Lake and McHenry Counties as well as in other outlying suburbs. An estimated 168 jobs could be affected by the closures.
Washington Mutual made a big splash when it entered the market in 2003 by rapidly opening branches throughout the area. But the company has struggled to win market share in the highly competitive banking market here.
Industry observers have long been waiting for a shakeout to occur, and WaMu has topped many lists for predicted cutbacks.
WaMu's deposit market share in the Chicago area is 0.3 percent, the same as Rockford-based Amcore Bank, which has only about two dozen Chicago-area branches, and Elgin-based EFS Bank, which has about 10.
The retrenchment in the Chicago area is part of a broader consolidation under way by the company, which is in the process of closing 80 poor-performing stores nationwide.
WaMu spokesman Shane Winn said the area branches slated to close are lagging in three areas: household growth, market density potential and financial performance.
"We'll continue to open stores in Chicagoland, as we believe in our ability to succeed here," Winn said.
Do I hear a $37 million? In his 30 or so years as an auctioneer, Joel Langer has sold everything from a Shelby prototype convertible to a bottle of rare cabernet sauvignon to works of art.
So why not hundreds of millions of dollars of bad debt?
Langer's new business venture, Chicago Debt Exchange, on Wednesday will conduct a live auction of about $500 million in commercial, credit card, mortgage and auto loan debt, including some on behalf of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Portfolios being sold include $37 million in bank-card debt, $57 million in phone-bill debt, and Chapter 7 bankruptcy-related home renovation debts of $194,000.
About 150 potential bidders have registered for the event, said Langer, who'd like to hold the events weekly and who gets a fee for each transaction.
"When you don't pay your phone bill, after the phone company is done trying to collect, they package it and sell it to someone else," Langer said in an interview Thursday.
Potential buyers can participate in person at 200 S. Wacker Drive, by phone or the Internet.
Skeptics have said that auctions aren't conducive to buying a debt portfolio.
"The caution that I have is that these are nonperforming consumer loans; these aren't commodities," one debt buyer told trade publication American Banker in a story about Langer's start-up. "It's not like a share in a public company."
Langer expects everybody who buys a portfolio will do due diligence ahead of time.
Indeed, Chicago lawyer Horace Fox, a panel trustee for the U.S. trustee's office and involved in some matters that the auction is trying to resolve, likes the new effort to sell debt.
"Usually, you have to do it the old-fashioned way, filing a lawsuit for each claim, and that is expensive, cumbersome and time-consuming," the Lehman Fox lawyer said Thursday. "The thought is we'd try something that smacks of this century's technology and use the Internet and a simultaneous live auction to sell the debt."
----------
byerak@tribune.com
posted by Carlos T Mock at 10:26 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home