The U.S. treasury department through its agency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, closed down BankUnited, FSB, a Florida based institution, last week. BankUnited incurred a loss of over $1.2 billion last year on account of loan defaults. According to authorities, BankUnited was "was critically undercapitalized." An investor group led by the Blackstone group and the Carlyle Group has acquired the assets and liabilities of BankUnited, FSB, and will reopen the bank as a newly chartered savings bank, named BankUnited. The closure is expected to cost Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) about $4.9 billion. The struggling economy and the consequent bank failures have resulted in a drastic reduction of the FDIC funds available for bailouts, from $52.4 billion as of December 31, 2007 to $18.9 billion as of December 31, 2008. In 2007, the nation saw 3 bank failures- that number rose to 25 in 2008, and now stands at 24 in the first four and a half months in 2009. According to FDIC, this trend will continue throughout 2009, and could continue to increase for several years to come.
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