Wachovia Corp. chief executive Ken Thompson was pushed out on June 2 as head of the nation’s fourth-largest bank, becoming the latest financial services executive to be ousted amid turmoil in the U.S. housing market.

Thompson joins Stanley O’Neal at Merrill Lynch & Co. and Charles Prince at Citigroup Inc., who both presided over huge losses from exposure to bad mortgages, and were subsequently forced out from their perches at the top of Wall Street institutions.