Federal regulators have taken control of the troubled California-based IndyMac Bank in one of the biggest bank closures in US history.
The regulatory Office of Thrift Supervision said it had placed the Pasadena-headquartered bank, worth an estimated $32bn, under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Group.
The bank will re-open next Monday as the IndyMac Federal Bank.
Regulators said the closure was prompted by withdrawals of $1.3bn made by the bank's customers since June, when doubts were raised publicly about the institution's long-term viability.
The decision had been anticipated after IndyMac's share price collapsed. The company announced this week it had halting lending and was planning to shed 3,800 jobs, more than half of its work force.
At its peak in 2006, the company, which had been reeling under the foreclosure crisis, employed 10,000 people. The latest lay-offs would have reduced the work force to around 3,400.
Reports said IndyMac's collapse was the second biggest in US history, behind the 1984 failure of the $40bn Continental Illinois Bank.
