The purchase, says the buyer, will be a "transformational" deal. That is no small claim, when the buyer is one of America's biggest and fastest-growing banks. On June 6th Washington Mutual (WaMu), the country's seventh-biggest bank by assets and one of its biggest mortgage lenders, said it would pay $6.5 billion in stock and cash for Providian Financial, a once-troubled credit-card provider. Purchasing Providian will alter the balance of WaMu's business. Just as important, WaMu will hope that the deal will enable it to pull away from the sticky patch it has been in for a year or so. A long run of speedy growth, fuelled by acquisitions and America's mortgage boom, faded last summer, owing to a slowdown in mortgage refinancing and sloppy hedging. With home-related lending making up more than 90% of its interest income, the bank has been trying to diversify, notably by expanding its retail business through a rapid programme of branch openings. By buying America's ninth-biggest credit-card issuer, WaMu will diversify further. It hopes to cross-sell its mortgage and other products to Providian's 10m customers and to push Providian's credit cards through its own 2,500 branches.
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