These actions and the market's growing unease "brought an intense amount of public focus on WaMu and its ability to withstand the latest economic crisis," court documents said. People panicked and withdrew "significant" amounts of money, and forecasts of instability "became a self-fulfilling prophecy," the company said in its filing.

An outflow of deposits began on Sept. 15 and reached $16.7 billion, leaving the thrift without enough cash to meet obligations.

A seizure of WaMu also had been widely anticipated because of the company's heavy mortgage-related losses. It reported a $3 billion loss in the second quarter — the biggest in its history — after boosting reserves to more than $8 billion to cover losses on bad loans. Over the last three quarters, it added $10.9 billion to its loan loss provisions.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank turned off the primary credit spigot to WaMu after the thrift got a low rating on its overall condition from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Primary credit from the Fed banks' lending facility is typically an overnight loan for sound financial institutions. It carries a lower interest rate than secondary credit.

At this time, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the FDIC strongly urged WaMu to seek a sale or merger deal with a stronger financial institution. Interested suitors were Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Toronto-Dominion Bank, JP Morgan and Banco Santander SA of Spain.

TPG and its investor group agreed to waive a provision that would require WaMu to pay or issue up to $1.5 billion in cash or common shares in the event of a big equity sale or major change in the thrift's ownership, such as a merger, at a price lower than $8.75 per share.

But WaMu said sale talks were unsuccessful and pursued alternatives including debt for equity swaps and divestitures designed to boost capital and liquidity levels. The thrift said that while it was going after these options, on Sept. 25 federal thrift regulators began bank receivership proceedings and WaMu's assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase on the same day.

The following day, WaMu filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. It listed assets of $32.9 billion and total debt of $8.2 billion on the holding company level.