I posted this to another thread about WaMu. I think it is relevent here too. Did this JPMorgan takeover really just happen today?

I have a checking account at WaMu, and have run out of checks. My wife sent some money to a friend a week ago, and, lacking paper checks at home, used online bill pay to send the money. Online bill pay cuts hard paper checks to recipients that can not accept electronic transfers. Today, the friend acknowledged getting the check, deposited it right away, but before hand noticed that the date of issue on the check was 9/19, and the bank issuing the check was JPMorgan, not WaMu. Sadly, the friend did not xerox the check first, so we have no hard evidence. But I believe my friend. I suspect some kind of a deal went through a week ago, but there was a big cover up and the story was allowed to break today. It seems sloppy of JPMorgan to have issued the check, but considering most recipients of online bill pay are institutions that have no idea who their customers normally bank with, it seems reasonable that they (JP) expected it would go completely unnoticed. It all seems awfully sinister to me.