Washington Mutual built its reputation on rapid expansion of branchs and an ultra-aggressive mortgage operation–which its continued to expand into the teeth of the housing recession. The bank’s share price has only risen 14% over the last three years.

Washington Mutual is not closing branchs and cutting back its expansion, but investors have to wonder why it took so long.

The company’s CEO recently said that the mortgage buiness would be poor in 2007. One would think he could have made that statement several months ago.

Washington Mutual is now talking about share repurchases as being one of the cornerstone’s of its plans next year. Always a good answer to a poor strategic performance.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.