Washington Mutual, a leading US mortgage lender hobbled by the credit crisis, on Monday ousted its longtime chief executive, Kerry Killinger, and replaced him with an outsider, a move that suggests the bank might put itself up for sale.

Mr Killinger becomes the latest in a long line of prominent bank chief executives to lose his job as a result of the collapse of the US real estate market. Earlier this year, he warned investors that the bank might have to write down as much as $19bn in bad debt. Its share price has dropped from $40 to $3 since the summer of 2007.