LOS ANGELES — IndyMac Bank’s assets were seized by federal regulators Friday after succumbing to the pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures.
The Office of Thrift Supervision said it transferred IndyMac’s operations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. because it did not think the lender could meet its depositors’ demands.
The bank is the largest regulated thrift to fail and the second-largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, regulators said. “This institution failed today due to a liquidity crisis,” OTS director John Reich said.
IndyMac had $32.01 billion in assets as of March 31. Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the holding company for IndyMac Bank, has been struggling to raise capital as the housing slump deepens. A spokesman for the lender did not immediately return an e-mail request for comment.
The banking regulator said it closed IndyMac after customers began a run on the lender after the June 26 release of a letter by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., urging several bank regulatory agencies to take steps to prevent IndyMac’s collapse.
The FDIC planned to reopen the bank as IndyMac Federal Bank FSB.
