As lawmakers continued to hammer out the terms of the Wall Street bailout on Friday, tragedy struck Washington Mutual, effectively making it the largest bank to fail in the history of American finance. The company was seized by the FDIC on Thursday, and its assets sold to JPMorgan & Chase for a sum of $1.9 billion. JPMorgan said it would write down WaMu’s loan portfolio by approximately $31 billion, though the decision could be subject to change if an agreement on the government bailout is reached, and the company chooses to take advantage.

With regard to the acquisition, CEO Jamie Dimon stated: “We’re in favor of what the government is doing, but we’re not relying on what the government is doing. We would’ve done it anyway.” The change now deems JPMorgan the second largest bank in the nation, trumped only by Bank of America.

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