Imagine how George Bailey — the Jimmy Stewart character in “It’s a Wonderful Life” — would react if he arrived via time travel to read Washington Mutual’s announcement of “new, industry leading subprime mortgage lending standards.” For that matter, what would Henry Potter, the mean banker, have had to say?From now on, WaMu tells us, it will not make sub-prime loans without checking to see whether the borrower is lying about his income. It will require that borrowers have escrow accounts to pay taxes and insurance. And “we will offer industry leading disclosures and enhanced outreach efforts, including pre-closing contact by WaMu with the borrower.”

The idea that it was news that a banker would actually meet with a borrower before sending the money would leave both Mr. Bailey and Mr. Potter wondering what had become of our financial system.

They would simply be perplexed by WaMu’s pledge not to make any more 2-28 or 3-27 loans. Those are loans that offer good interest rates for two or three years, and then reset to higher rates. The fact defaults have been rising before most of those loans reset is alarming. Now WaMu will not make any such loans that reset before five years are up.

These are good changes, but they come a bit late. WaMu tells us that its subprime lending was down 70 percent, year-over-year, in the second quarter, and down 30 percent from the first quarter. And it tells us that its losses on subprime loans were just $131 million in the second quarter, about half the first quarter loss.