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July 14, 2008

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July 14, 2008

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IndyMac escapes the temple of federal doom with a new name
July 14, 2008

THE United States bank that was closed last week in one of the biggest failures of US banking history is due to reopen today.

IndyMac Bank was placed under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday but will reopen today as IndyMac Federal Bank.

With an estimated value of $US32 billion ($33.3 billion), the Californian bank was the largest to fail in a year of mortgage and foreclosure crises, highlighted by a surge in defaults and a plunge in housing prices that has rippled through the US economy.

The FDIC stressed at the weekend that it was seeking to return the bank to private operation within a few months.

"When we reopen Monday we will begin the process of marketing this bank to try to get it back into the private sector. We expect that to take about 90 days," a corporation spokesman, David Barr, told CNN.

IndyMac was the fifth bank insured by the corporation to fail this year. It is expected to cost the FDIC between $US4 billion and $US8 billion, wiping out as much as 10 per cent of its $US53 illion Deposit Insurance Fund.

Federal US regulators at the Office of Thrift Supervision, who placed the bank in the corporation's control on Friday, said the closure was prompted by withdrawals of $US1.3 billion made by bank customers since doubts were raised publicly about its long-term viability last month.

"The institution failed today due to a liquidity crisis," said the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, John Reich.

The decision had been expected as IndyMac's share price collapsed. A year ago its shares traded at more than $US28 each. They closed at US28c on Friday.

Last week IndyMac had announced a halt to lending and plans to shed 3800 jobs, more than half its workforce. The lay-offs would have left 3400 employed by the bank, which peaked with 10,000 on its payroll in 2006.

IndyMac's woes came as the US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were being pushed to the brink by a share price meltdown that had raised fears last week of a government bailout.

The government-chartered, shareholder-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underpin about $US5 trillion in home loans.

In volatile trade on Friday shares plunged about 50 per cent for both firms before a partial recovery. Freddie Mac ended with a loss of 3 per cent and Fannie was down 22 per cent. They have both lost about 75 per cent since the start of the year.

The two firms said separately they were "adequately capitalised" and had ample liquidity despite swirling market fears, while the US Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, on Friday offered no indication of imminent intervention.

"Today our primary focus is supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form as they carry out their important mission," Mr Paulson said.

IndyMac had been sent into freefall last month by conmments by the Democratic senator Charles Schumer about its health, which prompted a flood of withdrawals by panicked customers.

The Wall Street Journal reported Mr Reich as saying Senator Schumer's comments had given the bank "a heart attack", to which the senator responded: "If OTS had done its job as regulator and not let IndyMac's poor and loose lending practices continue, we wouldn't be where we are today."

IndyMac's collapse was reported as the second biggest in US history behind the failure in 1984 of the $US40 billion Continental Illinois Bank.

Agence France-Presse