SEATTLE (AP):

Federal authorities said Wednesday they have opened an investigation into the failure of Washington Mutual Inc., the largest US bank failure.

US Attorney Jeff Sullivan said in a statement that the FBI, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the IRS and the Securities and Exchange Commission have created a task force to look into the thrift's failure. He asked anyone with information to contact authorities through a tip line, or to email the FBI's Seattle office.

Sullivan said that "given the significant losses to investors, employees and our community, it is fully appropriate that we scrutinise the activities of the bank, its leaders and others to determine if any federal laws were violated."

Bad decision

Seattle-based WaMu ran into trouble giving loans to people with poor credit repayment histories during the housing boom. As talk of the 119-year-old thrift's instability spread and its credit was downgraded, people began pulling their money out - leaving WaMu without enough cash to meet its obligations.

It filed for bankruptcy protection and was sold last month in a $1.9 billion fire sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the biggest banking companies in the US.