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Washington Mutual, despite its name, is a stock financial services company based in Seattle, Washington.

Founded as the Washington National Building Loan and Investment Association on September 25, 1889, it made the first home mortgage loan on the West Coast four months later. Its name was changed to Washington Savings and Loan Association on June 25, 1908. During World War I its assets would expand by 68%.

By now called Washington Mutual Savings Bank, the company made its first acquisition on July 25, 1930, of Continental Mutual Savings Bank. Over the next fifty years it would be involved in pioneering cash machine networks and telephone banking.

In 1983 Washington Mutual bought the brokerage firm Murphey Favre and demutualized. It now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WM. By 1989 its assets had doubled.

Since the acquisition of Murphey Favre Washington Mutual has made numerous acquisitions and is now the leading mortgage lender in the country. A list of such acquisitions follows:

HomeSide Lending, Inc., Florida, 2002 Dime Bancorp, Inc., New York, 2002 Fleet Mortgage Corp., South Carolina, 2001 Bank United Corp., Texas, 2001 PNC Mortgage, Illinois, 2001 Alta Residential Mortgage Trust, California, 2000 Long Beach Financial Corp., California, 1999 Industrial Bank, California, 1998 H.F. Ahmanson (Home Savings of America), California, 1998 Great Western Financial Corp., 1997 United Western Financial Group, Inc., Utah, 1997 Keystone Holdings, Inc. (American Savings Bank), California, 1996 Utah Federal Savings Bank, 1996 Western Bank, Oregon, 1996 Enterprise Bank, Washington, 1995 Olympus Bank fsb, Utah, 1995 Summit Savings Bank, Washington, 1994 Far West Federal Savings Bank, Oregon, 1994 Pacific First Bank, Ontario, 1993 Pioneer Savings Bank, Washington, 1993 Great Northwest Bank, Washington, 1992 World Savings & Loan Association, California, 1992 Sound Savings & Loan Association, Washington, 1991 CrossLand Savings fsb, Utah, 1991 Vancouver Federal Savings Bank, Washington, 1991 Williamsburg Federal Savings Association, Utah, 1990 Frontier Federal Savings Association, Washington, 1990 Old Stone Bank of Washington, FSB, Rhode Island, 1990 Columbia Federal Savings Bank, Washington, 1988 Shoreline Savings Bank, Washington, 1988 Lincoln Mutual Savings Bank, Washington, 1985 United Savings Bank, Washington, 1983