Boston Globe: Wamu Customers Reassured

AFFIL appeared in this article by Ross Kerber on September 27, 2008

Washington Mutual was a big lender of subprime and other high-cost mortgages, the kind of housing loans that have defaulted in droves and are at the heart of the nation’s credit crisis. Research by University of Massachusetts at Boston economist Jim Campen found that 17.2 percent of WaMu’s loans in 2006 were loans such as subprime mortgages made to people with poor credit or adjustable-rate loans whose payments increased in later years.

“There was a lot of irresponsible lending in Massachusetts, and I think their subprime lending was part of that,” Campen said.

Washington Mutual did not return calls seeking comment.

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