FDIC may owe JPMorgan Chase billions

Kai Ryssdal: Two years ago, the financial crisis brought us the biggest bank failure we’d ever seen. Washington Mutual going broke and being bought by JPMorgan for less than $2 billion. Now, it seems JPMorgan Chase is getting ready to ask the FDIC for its money back — three times its money back, actually. Alisa Roth: JPMorgan Chase wants the FDIC to pay billions of dollars in claims from lawsuits related to Washington Mutual’s failure. The deal JPMorgan signed when it took over the dying bank could hold the FDIC responsible for those liabilities. It’s not clear whether the FDIC will have to absorb those losses. Karen Petrou is a banking analyst. She thinks given the number of banks on the watch list, more failures are inevitable — as are more lawsuits demanding money from the FDIC. Karen Petrou: There are always lawyers, there’s always going to be litigation. But I don’t think any of it as game changers in terms of the FDIC’s cost of recovery or redefining taxpayer risk for the banking crisis.

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