From IndyMac to OneWest: Steven Mnuchin's Big Score
Wall Street veteran Steven Mnuchin rode into Pasadena and bought what was left of IndyMac. Now he’s making a killing
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Steven Mnuchin never dreamed of running a regional bank. He didn’t ever imagine moving to Los Angeles. A true creature of Wall Street—a former Goldman Sachs partner and active hedge fund manager—he was making plenty of money in New York. Yet he had carefully weighed the risks of buying IndyMac Bank, the Pasadena (Calif.)-based lender that collapsed in 2008. IndyMac’s distressed mortgages and mortgage-backed securities had no place to go but up; the Federal Reserve, through its discount window, was practically giving money away; and Southern California was a rich, relatively underserved banking region. So in December 2008, Mnuchin put together a partnership and bought IndyMac.