Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, has also hinted the corporation pays executives too much and wants to forceit to open its accounts to external auditors.
Countrywide, the second-biggest mortgage bank, is even treading on WaMu's toes: as part of its plan to triple its sales force by 2008, it plans to open perhaps a dozen new offices in Washington state.
The impetus behind it was not scientific evidence but pressure from the airlines to force out older pilots, keeping the pipeline open for younger and cheaper replacements.