There are two winners in JP Morgan Chase's (JPM) purchase of Washington Mutual (WM): the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Chase.

The deal prevents WaMu's collapse from further depleting the FDIC's insurance fund. JPMorgan Chase says the purchase will add about 50 cents a share to its earnings in 2009.

The FDIC seized Washington Mutual and then sold its banking assets to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion. JP Morgan plans to write down Washington Mutual's loan portfolio by about $31 billion. However, this could change if the bailout package now pending in Congress is approved.

Washington Mutual is JPMorgan Chase's second major acquisition this year. In March, the bank purchased Bear Stearns, a venerable Wall Street investment bank, for about $1.4 billion, plus about $900 million in stock.

JPMorgan Chase is now the nation's second-largest bank, trailing only Bank of America (BAC), which recently snapped up Merrill Lynch (MER). JPMorgan Chase says it plans to raise about $8 billion by selling shares of common stock.

Washington Mutual's collapse is no surprise in view of its heavy mortgage loses. Earlier, Standard & Poor's warned that the bank was near collapse.

Wells Fargo (WFC), Citigroup (C),Toronto-Dominion Bank of Canada (TD) and Spain's Banco Santander also considered taking over Washington Mutual.