Washington Mutual acquired Murphey Favre in 1983. Killinger was named executive vice president, and promoted in 1986 to senior vice president, and to director in 1988. He was named president of the company that year, CEO in 1990, and chairman in 1991. American Banker named him its 2001 Banker of the Year. In 2003, Killinger predicted that by 2008, Washington Mutual would not be identified as a bank. He said "We hope to do to this industry what Walmart did to theirs, Starbucks did to theirs, Costco did to theirs and Lowe’s-Home Depot did to their industry."