adding core mortgage relationships. |
cut from the same cloth. |
Despite the challenging environment, especially in the home loans business, we delivered solid performance, achieving 12 percent earnings per share growth for the quarter and 14 percent for the year. |
These businesses added customers at a record pace and delivered significant revenue and earnings even in this difficult interest rate environment. |
This acquisition is a logical step in continuing our effort to build out our mortgage business and its increase fee income without acquiring additional mortgage servicing rights, |
This combination helps to further diversify our balance sheet and earnings by adding attractive, high-yielding credit card assets, while improving our net interest margin and adding stable fee income, |
This is a landmark day for Washington Mutual and for our industry, |
This was a disappointing quarter. While second-quarter results were affected by the volatility of our mortgage servicing rights, the root of our problem is the unacceptably high cost structure in our mortgage banking business. We know what we need to do, our efforts are well under way, and we will not be satisfied until we have fixed it. |
We (will) continue to make community reinvestment an integral part of our ongoing business plan, |
We are pleased to welcome Regina to our Board of Directors. She is a nationally recognized leader in the legal, corporate, and nonprofit communities. Her leadership skills and commitment to promoting economic advancement for all complement the Board and make her a valuable addition. |
We are very pleased with our first quarter results. The company's strong performance demonstrates the benefits of our continued diversification and enhanced operational focus. This past quarter we had particularly strong results in Retail Banking and Card Services. |
We believe that there are significant operating efficiencies to be gained by bringing our two very similar operations together, with very low integration risk. |
With this move, Washington Mutual?already the second largest home lender in New York?acquires a broad retail footprint to complement our existing mortgage business, |