Wachovia bank failure imminent

Attempts over the weekend to find a buyer for Wachovia, America’s fourth largest bank failed, leaving the bank wide-open to be seized by the US authorities. However, it has been said that the North Carolina-based bank are in early talks with Wells Fargo and Citigroup of Santander as shares of Wachovia plummeted on Friday by 27 percent. If the banks were to be seized by the US authorizes the potential buyers could wait so they could swoop in and pick up Wachovia’s assets at a knock-down price.

Washington Mutual got closed down last week by the US government was brought out for a bargain price of $1.9 billion (£1.03 billion) by JPMorgan Chase, this insured that the US Federal Deposit Corporation did have to pay out from its $45 billion insurance fund.

Spanish banking giant Santander have been very active in buying banks amid the global financial crisis, buying Alliance & Leicester last week and looks set to pick up divisions of Bradford and Bingley, and now It has been reported that Germany’s Deutsche Postbank is next on the Santander want list.

Read the full article in the Independent