After a $130-million write off of Lehman Brothers assets last week the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) today estimated the loss to its funds from the Washington Mutual bank failure to be approximately $47 million to the state's pension and other trust funds managed by the WSIB. The loss represents 0.059% of the WSIB's $78 billion in total assets under management.

The WSIB's private equity program lost $41 million and the remaining $6 million in losses impacts the WSIB's public equity program. 

In addition to 17 public pension funds, the WSIB manages investments for 21 other public funds including Labor & Industries' industrial insurance funds and the Deferred Compensation Program 

"The WSIB is a large institutional investor with a long term perspective and a high quality well diversified investment strategy that is built to withstand inevitable market ups and downs," said WSIB Executive Director Joe Dear. "This is a period of great turmoil and concern, but we are confident that we will weather this storm."