BankUnited seized by regulators in biggest bank failure of 2009

Regulators this afternoon seized BankUnited (BKUNA), Florida's largest bank, and sold its deposits to a consortium of private equity funds, marking it the largest bank to fail so far this year.

BankUnited's failure will cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. some $4.9 billion, the agency said in a statement. The bank boasted $12.8 billion in assets and $8.6 billion in deposits, according to the FDIC.