Having suffered greatly due to the housing slump, Washington Mutual plans on laying off more than 3,000 workers as well as cutting its quarterly dividend from 56 cents a share to 15 cents a share. Commenting on WaMu's move, Richard Bove of Punk, Ziegel & Co. said, ''It's not a cure-all, but certainly not a surprise. They were much more aggressive than I thought.''

WaMu also plans on cutting other jobs, including 2, 600 mortgage-related jobs and more than 500 corporate and support jobs.

Loan and subprime mortgage lending losses both look inevitable, too.

The bank's CEO and chairman, Kerry Killinger, has faced criticism for WaMu's recent losses; however, according to Bove, "This is the way this business functions. To say that Kerry Killinger did something terribly negative to make his company stand out from the rest of the pack — that is inappropriate."

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