1982 Arrival of Killinger
During the 1980s, the subsidiary companies that would compose The Washington Mutual Financial Group came into bloom. The proliferation of diversified financial subsidiaries grouped under the Washington Mutual corporate umbrella began in 1982 when the bank acquired Murphey Favre, Inc., Composite Research & Management Co., and formed Washington Mutual Insurance Services. Murphey Favre was the Northwest's oldest securities brokerage firm, Composite Research & Management Co. operated as an investment advisor and portfolio management firm, and Washington Mutual Insurance Services was a full-service retail insurance agency. Beginning with these three subsidiaries, Washington Mutual formed or acquired a host of other operating companies that carried the bank into a variety of new business areas, including travel services, real estate partnerships, junk bonds, and commercial construction loans.
None of the subsidiary companies either acquired or formed during the 1980s was more important to the future of Washington Mutual than the 1982 acquisition of Murphey Favre, a distinction entirely due to the arrival of a young Murphey Favre executive named Kerry K. Killinger. At the time of the 1982 acquisition, Killinger was 32 years old and had served as a securities analyst and investment broker for the company before being named executive vice-president. Once brought into the Washington Mutual fold, Killinger rose quickly through the bank's executive ranks, becoming president in 1988 and chief executive officer two years later. During Killinger's rise, Washington Mutual was moving in a different direction, as the bank began to decline and suffer from waning profitability. With earnings slipping late in the decade, a new program aimed at restoring profitability and invigorating growth was launched, one that would dramatically amplify the magnitude of Washington Mutual's geographic scope.