As everyone in Los Angeles knows by now, Chase Bank is now operating in Southern California. Every Washington Mutual branch in the City of Angels has been rebranded with Chase logos and decor, and radio ads that run night and day explain why Chase "decided" to enter the California banking market. (Oddly, none of the reasons listed includes "swallowing a failing bank in order to gain national market share.")

The arrival of Chase was welcome news to me and many other East Coast transplants who didn't want to go through the ordeal of switching banks.

Well, despite the rebranding and marketing efforts, it's not exactly a reality. Chase Banks in California aren't Chase Banks. They're WaMu Banks with Chase logos. Here's how things actually work for Chase customers in California:

• Chase ATMs in LA don't accept Chase deposits
• Chase tellers accept Chase deposits, but have to mail the deposit to a real Chase Bank for processing, meaning it takes up to 2 days for deposits to post
• Chase employees aggressively solicit current Chase customers to switch from Chase accounts to "California Chase" ones. ("California Chase" = WaMu)

When a banker attempted to convince me to switch to one of these "California Chase" accounts this morning, I asked him when Chase would really switch over the LA branches. He said it would happen by the end of the year.

So much for the big arrival.