Fortune: Washington Mutual - a new banking model
Kimberly Allers reports on the unique approach that Washington Mutual brings to retail banking.
While banking behemoths like Citigroup and Chase were investing millions to steer customers out of their branches and to faceless ATMs and the Internet during the past several years, Washington Mutual courted customers in underserved urban markets by offering free checking and other wallet-targeted incentives. With its customer-oriented appeal to the mass market and its own version of everyday low pricing, the bank known as WaMu (pronounced "WAH-moo") has earned comparisons to retail giant Wal-Mart.
