Regulators close Florida’s BankUnited FSB

Institution is largest to fail, second-biggest hit to FDIC fund this year

Bank United Financial goes bust
May 21: Bank United Financial of Coral Gables, Florida became the biggest bank to fail this year, and the second biggest failure after giant Indy Mac was taken over last year. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Nightly News

updated 1 hour, 46 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Regulators on Thursday shut down BankUnited FSB, a struggling Florida thrift whose closure is expected to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $4.9 billion.

The failure of the Coral Gables, Fla.-based bank represents the second-largest hit to the FDIC’s insurance fund so far — the costliest was last year’s seizure of California lender IndyMac, on which the FDIC is estimated to lose $10.7 billion.

BankUnited FSB is the 34th federally insured institution to be closed this year, and the biggest. The FDIC on Thursday took control of the bank, which called itself Florida’s largest banking institution with about $13 billion in assets as of May 2.

The Office of Thrift Supervision, a Treasury Department agency, said Thursday that BankUnited FSB reported $1.2 billion in losses last year as defaults on loans piled up. The thrift “was critically undercapitalized and in an unsafe condition to conduct business,â€