Nick Gorski of SNL Financial [subscription] writes an excellent summary of yesterday’s conference call:

"Speaking during a conference call in connection with the Council of Institutional Investors' spring meeting, Patterson said there has been great support among institutional investors at the conference for the effort to remove WaMu directors Mary Pugh and James Stever. 'It's a little early to project any numbers here, but we believe there's a very strong showing' of support, he said. 'The board failure is very pronounced.'
…
“Michael Garland, the director of values strategy at CtW, said the decrease in WaMu's stock value during recent quarters was 'not the inevitable consequence of the cyclical downturn in the housing market.' He blamed it, instead, on the failure of risk management oversight by the board and the finance committee, saying that Pugh, whose company, Pugh Capital, had a business relationship with WaMu until 2006, was not truly independent from the company.

"'Risk management is too important to delegate to a committee chaired by a conflicted director,'he said.

“Patterson told listeners that a need for an independent chair is conventional wisdom among directors but rare within the financial sector. 'We believe that risk management requires a forceful board who serves as a check on the CEO, that what investors need is a board of directors that will stand up to strong, willful CEOs with a prediction to risk,' Patterson said.”

In other WaMu news, John Goff titles a post on Financial Week, “WaMu lines up capital, but not backing for its directors.”

Posted by Anna Mumford on April 10, 2008 3:16 PM