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Washington Mutual profit improves

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2001 | 11 a.m.

SEATTLE -- Washington Mutual Inc., the largest U.S. savings and loan and an operator in Las Vegas, said its fourth-quarter profit rose as more customers opened checking accounts and applied for loans to purchase homes.

Net income rose to $496.9 million, or 94 cents a share, from $450.3 million, or 80 cents, a year earlier. That beat the average estimate of 91 cents a share made by 17 analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial.

Washington Mutual said deposits and other retail banking fees rose 22 percent to $269.1 million as consumers, attracted by free checking, opened up more than 106,000 checking accounts during the quarter, bringing the total for the year to 514,000.

Washington Mutual said loan volume was $17.31 billion. Demand for single-family residential loans totaled $11.63 billion, up from $10.05 billion a year earlier.

Washington Mutual had assets of $194.72 billion at the end of 2000. The company plans to increase its cash dividend to 31 cents a share, up from 30 cents in the third quarter.

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