The FDIC spirited Colonial Bank's deposits and assets to BB&T, while it shuttered four other smaller banks. This brings the total of bank failures in 2009 to 77. The AP reported on the FDIC's most expensive bank implosions:
The May closing of struggling Florida thrift BankUnited FSB is expected to cost the insurance fund $4.9 billion, the second-largest hit since the financial crisis began. The costliest was the July 2008 seizure of big California lender IndyMac Bank, on which the insurance fund is estimated to have lost $10.7 billion.
The largest U.S. bank failure ever also came last year: Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc. fell in September, with about $307 billion in assets. It was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. for $1.9 billion in a deal brokered by the FDIC.
Note the big money benefactors of these publicly overseen deals. BankUnited and IndyMac went to private equity underwriters/hedge funds. JPMorgan walked away with WaMu for pennies on the dollar. The next round of giveaways has the PEU boys salivating, but they won't play on anything other than their greedy terms. Will regulators continue to accomodate?
