Washington Federal Bank applies to convert to state-chartered bank

Seattle-based Washington Federal Bank NA, a unit of Washington Federal Inc., applied on Dec. 31, 2021, to the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions to convert from a national association to a Washington state-chartered bank.

If the application is approved and the conversion is completed, the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions will be Washington Federal Bank's primary regulator and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will be the bank's primary federal regulator. The Federal Reserve will continue to be Washington Federal's primary federal regulator.

Washington Federal Bank has notified the FDIC of the proposed charter conversion and filed a notice of the charter conversion with its current primary federal regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. If the charter conversion application is approved, the bank will cancel its holdings of stock of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and terminate its membership in the Federal Reserve System.

Washington Federal Bank does business as WaFd Bank.