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Reasons behind the regulators' closure of the Washington Mutual (WaMu)bank in September 2008 are discussed. Regulators had explained that WaMu had a deficient liquidity and huge amount of failed mortgage loans. However, WaMu had enough cash and a regulator-checked plan that could have sustained operations at the time of its closure.

The Office of Thrift Supervision's (OTS) unprecedented enforcement action against Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays and Handler (Kaye Scholer) prompted howls of protest from the legal community. OTS, it was claimed, was using its excessive power to redefine the role of the lawyer. This Comment confirms that OTS sought to impose duties on Kaye Scholer that conflict with professional ethics rules. The Comment then goes on to suggest that the conflict over professional responsibility in the Kaye Scholer case reflects, more fundamentally, a conflict over the role of the citizen, and the citizen's relationship with the state. Our adversarial system of dispute resolution is founded on our democratic assumption of citizen autonomy. Citizens are presumed to have independent interests and goals that the state must take into account when it regulates their activities. By contrast, OTS views the thrifts it regulates not as autonomous citizens but as instrumental means of achieving OTS goals. This Comment contends that it is this divergence in the concept of the citizen that gave rise in the Kaye Scholer case to the conflict regarding the appropriate role of the lawyer. The Comment concludes by exploring some normative questions raised by the OTS regulatory scheme.

Professor Lawrence G. Baxter is correct in his argument that statutory authority, rather than the broad fiduciary duty claimed by the agency, is the source of the enforcement authority of the US Office of Thrift Supervision. Imposition of the fiduciary duty violates Congressional intent in enacting the statute, section 8 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. Therefore, attorneys representing insured depository institutions should be held only to traditional standards of professional conduct.

The US Office of Thrift Supervision's recent claim that broad fiduciary duties are owed to the government by federally insured depository institutions and associated third parties is unnecessary as well as erroneous. The duty to refrain from 'unsafe and unsound' practices, a statutory duty created by the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, provides sufficient authority for the agency's enforcement powers. Furthermore, the statutory duty provides a much clearer standard than does the general fiduciary duty proposed by the agency.

LEAGUE FOCUSES ON FHLB SYSTEM AND DEPOSIT INSURANCE REFORM Responding to repeated calls to be active players in the legislative process, 300 savings institution executives met in Washington, D.C., in [...]

Every taxpayer is familiar with the savings and loan crisis, the collapse of the national thrift system, and the. government's 'bailout' that is of a magnitude that defies historical precedent. [...]

Byline: Robert Barba The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has replaced an order between North American Savings Bank and the Office of Thrift Supervision with one of its [...]

Byline: Kate Davidson Shares of Clifton Savings Bancorp Inc. in New Jersey tumbled a day after it said its regulator would not approve its second-step conversion. The $1.1 billion-asset company [...]

Byline: Robert Barba A prompt corrective action directive is often a sign of grim times, but for AnchorBank in Madison, Wis., the order is serving as a guide as it [...]

Guaranty Bank in Milwaukee is under pressure to boost capital. The Office of Thrift Supervision imposed a cease-and-desist order last week requiring the company, which has $1.6 billion of assets, [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision is using the availability of federal capital programs as a bargaining chip to strengthen its oversight of holding companies. The regulator has been asking companies [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision approved applications late Friday for Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and Lincoln National Corp. to become thrift holding companies and take over two deeply troubled [...]

WASHINGTON -In a matter of hours Friday, four large insurance companies announced marriages with troubled thrift companies, and the Office of Thrift Supervision played the role of matchmaker, according to [...]

H&R Block Co. said the Office of Thrift Supervision had lifted a 3% capital requirement imposed on the holding company, giving it more freedom to buy back shares, allocate capital, [...]

WASHINGTON -- The Office of Thrift Supervision inadequately responded to danger signs at NetBank Inc. before the $2.5 billion-asset thrift failed in late September, according to a report issued by [...]

Beneficial Mutual Bancorp Inc. in Philadelphia said Tuesday that it has asked the Office of Thrift Supervision for permission to buy back up to 5% of its stock. The $3.5 [...]

WASHINGTON -- The Office of Thrift Supervision announced Friday that it had closed NetBank and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as the receiver for the $2.5 billion-asset Alpharetta, Ga., [...]

Office of Thrift Supervision Director John Reich announced that his agency would expand its work with minority-owned thrifts through a series of meetings and a survey. During a conference on [...]

Countrywide Financial Corp. has received approval from the Office of Thrift Supervision to convert to its national bank subsidiary, Countrywide Bank NA, to a federal thrift. The OTS announced late [...]

WASHINGTON -- A community group is questioning Countrywide Financial Corp.'s plan to convert to a thrift and whether the Office of Thrift Supervision could effectively scrutinize the lender's exotic loan [...]

A recent seminar at the American Enterprise Institute, 'Credit Unions in the Broader Financial System,' illuminated a basic misunderstanding about credit union capital, or net worth. Credit union net worth [...]

Popular Inc. has learned the hard -- and painfully public -- way that not all regulators are created equal, particularly when the subject is subprime lending. The San Juan, Puerto [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision announced Monday that it has updated its interest rate risk model and plans to continue making changes for a few years. The OTS said its [...]

R&G Financial Corp. said its Florida thrift, R-G Crown Bank, has entered a cease-and-desist order with the Office of Thrift Supervision. The San Juan, Puerto Rico, holding company said late [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision has terminated its supervisory agreement with Washington Savings Bank of Bowie, Md. The $444 million-asset thrift entered the agreement in March 2004, after the OTS [...]

Marcy Federal Credit Union in Marcy, N.Y., has applied to the Office of Thrift Supervision for a mutual savings bank charter, becoming the third credit union to do so in [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision has become the first federal regulator to preempt state laws covering gift cards. OTS-regulated thrifts may ignore state laws regarding gift card disclosures, licenses, fee [...]

WASHINGTON -- CUNA has submitted a statement for the record of a House subcommittee oversight hearing on the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) that is critical of the agency for [...]

WASHINGTON -- Sunday's big merger announcement raised a perennial public policy question: Are there enough thrifts to justify a separate federal regulatory agency? The number the Office of Thrift Supervision [...]

The retirement of Alan Greenspan marks the end of a golden era in which the Fed has enjoyed remarkable stability and enviable stature under the leadership of two of its [...]

After meeting with executives of 20 Gulf Coast thrifts last week, Office of Thrift Supervision Director John Reich predicted 'fallout' -- in the form of failures or mergers -- within [...]

A bill the Montgomery County Council in Maryland passed last week tries to circumvent federal and state preemption by treating predatory lending as discrimination. The bill, which County Executive Douglas [...]

WASHINGTON -- Banks and thrifts have to tell their regulator about any breach of security for sensitive customer information but will have more leeway in deciding when to notify customers, [...]

Not Happy Many attendees at the National Community Reinvestment Corp. annual conference spent a lot of time last week bashing the Office of Thrift Supervision for its recent changes to [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision published an interim rule Wednesday that would streamline its procedures for determining whether a company qualifies as a savings and loan holding company. The rule, [...]

It is going to be a lot easier for State Farm Insurance to get its agents to market mortgage loans and assist their clients in making applications now that it [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision said a mutual fund company that makes significant investments in savings associations may do so without filing applications that typically accompany those investments. In an [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision, which broke ranks with other regulators four months ago by proposing simplified community reinvestment requirements for more small thrifts, continued pushing the envelope Friday. The [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision has extended preemption of state licensing and registration requirements to companies marketing on behalf of federal savings associations. The Oct. 25 legal opinion says states [...]

AnchorBank in Madison, Wis., has signed a cease-and-desist order with the Office of Thrift Supervision concerning its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act. The order, announced Friday by the $3.8 [...]