Washington Mutual Exits Equipment Leasing

As reported by Leasing News last December in the Washington Mutual

Financial Corporation  purchase by Citigroup  there would not only be cuts in branches but products, such as leasing. It was competing in the

$250,000 to $15,000,000 market place.

A news “sales manager” was hired along with salesmen in

key states, but it was not long that they ran into a wall.

Leasing News was not able to obtain a comment at the

time, or recently, as it was reported they were in trouble

making deals.

The Citigroup press release December 2^nd,  2003 on the purchase

of the Financial Corporation:

“Operational synergies include some branch consolidation (about 30% of branch closures), funding cost benefits and enhancements to centralized processing systems. Processing enhancements will result from a combination of both WAMU Finance and CitiFinancial practices.

“Citigroup expects future revenue growth from the acquisition by targeting an attractive group within nonprime markets and stronger pricing. Integration risk is low given the expertise previously demonstrated by Citigroup. “

The release of salesmen, several who have advertised

in Leasing News classified ads, was an indication that

the leasing department was also going to go “bye-bye.”

They  were reportedly not competitive in speed, credit comfort,

and pricing in the marketplace they chose, according to reliable sources.

Washington Mutual states the closure of the 53 commercial locations will occur between August  20th and October  29^th

with from 850 to 1,000 employees let go.  The following

14 states are affected: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington