Shareholder activists have made a lot of noise but have not been able to point to many changes this proxy season—until today.

Mary Pugh, a member of the board of Washington Mutual for nine years, has resigned. Because she was chairwoman of the board's finance committee for the last three years, Pugh had been the target of several shareholder groups who held her accountable for what they said was WaMu's shift toward subprime and other riskier mortgages.

"Shareholders at Washington Mutual sent an unequivocal message today that they are ready for more independent and accountable directors," said CtW Investment Group, which advises union pension funds. "We commend Washington Mutual's board for promptly accepting Ms. Pugh's resignation and urge them to also demand the resignation of any other directors who fail to win majority shareholder support."

Glass Lewis and other advisory shareholder groups had questioned the relationship of Pugh's investment firm with the savings and loan, "which might have affected her objectivity and oversight of the company's risk management."

She is a founder and chief executive of Pugh Capital Management, a 17-year-old fixed-income money management firm that has received more than $1.1 million in investment management fees from WaMu, according to Glass Lewis.  

WaMu, however, did not say in its statement why Pugh had stepped down.

WaMu also announced a first-quarter loss of $1.14 billion, and it had closed on its sale of $7 billion of common shares and convertible securities to investors led by private-equity titan TPG.