WAMU Employees Facing More Cuts

Employees at Washington Mutual, a key consumer and mortgage lender, face the prospect of more layoffs later this year.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Debora Horvath, the bank's executive vice president and chief information officer, told employees in a conference call that Washington Mutual could announce more layoffs in order to shed costs. Details were not provided, but the internal announcement underscores the bank's losses on bad mortgages and other consumer loans, and the impact on employment at banks with exposure to the housing collapse.

Washington Mutual has already cut thousands of jobs this year as it tries to stave off further losses in its lending portfolio. It trimmed its workforce by 6,300 jobs since December, and announced it would cut an additional 1,200 jobs in June.