Florida's BankUnited Fails, Will Cost FDIC $4.9B

The new bank will assume $12.7 billion in assets and $8.3 billion of its total $8.6 billion in deposits. In addition, the FDIC and the new bank agreed to share losses on about $10.7 billion in assets.

Deposits will be insured by the FDIC, and customers can continue to use BankUnited FSB checks, ATM cards and debit cards, the FDIC said.

The failed bank's parent was BankUnited Financial Corp. It had 1,083 employees and 85 branches, all in Florida, mostly located along the state's southeast coast.

The 34 bank failures this year in the U.S. compare with 25 in 2008 and just three in 2007. As the economy nationwide has soured, amid rising unemployment, tumbling home prices and soaring loan defaults, bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the deposit insurance fund. According to the most recent data available, the fund now stands at its lowest level in nearly a quarter-century — $18.9 billion as of Dec. 31, compared with $52.4 billion at the end of 2007.

The FDIC expects that bank failures will cost the insurance fund around $65 billion through 2013.

The FDIC has planned to impose a new emergency fee on U.S. banks to replenish the fund. Legislation passed by Congress this week boosts the FDIC's authority to borrow from the Treasury Department if needed from $30 billion to $100 billion, allowing the agency to reduce the amount of the insurance fees.