Indymac Bancorp Inc

The sale of IndyMac Federal Bank was concluded Thursday, and the new owners wasted no time in ditching its tainted name. Starting today, IndyMac is OneWest Bank. The Pasadena bank's new owners, organized under OneWest Bank Group, bought the bank's $20.7 billion in loans and other assets for $16 billion. That includes $9 billion in financing from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Home Loan Bank. For IndyMac customers it will be business as usual.

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. reported the first annual loss in company history Tuesday and scrapped its dividend to shore up capital. The holding company for IndyMac swung to a fourth-quarter loss as weakness in the housing market forced the mortgage lender to boost provisions for future credit losses from rising defaults, repossessions and other costs. That and the collapse of Wall Street's demand for home loans led to a loss of $509.1 million, or $6.43 a share, for the quarter that ended Dec. 31.

Internet mortgage specialist IndyMac Bancorp Inc. reported 20% higher second-quarter profit, with home loan originations up 73%. The Pasadena company earned $41.4 million, or 73 cents a share, during the quarter ended June 30, compared with $34.6 million, or 56 cents, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue increased 25% to $173.4 million. IndyMac said it would increase its quarterly dividend 50% to 15 cents a share. IndyMac shares fell $1.60 to $22.74 on the NYSE. E. Scott Reckard

Private investors closed a deal Friday to buy Pasadena's IndyMac Bank from regulators, promising to make the 33-branch thrift a "healthy banking institution" again. How exactly do they plan to accomplish that? So far, no one's saying. IndyMac collapsed July 11, 2008, the victim of an ill-fated strategy of using high-interest deposits to fund mortgage loans to borrowers who often weren't asked to document their earnings or assets.

The chairman of the congressional Joint Economic Committee asked U.S. regulators Thursday to scrutinize the financial health of Pasadena-based IndyMac Bancorp Inc. and suggested that the mortgage lender might be on the brink of failure. IndyMac may have "serious problems" with its loan holdings, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in letters to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Battling rumors that it may collapse, Pasadena-based IndyMac Bancorp acknowledged Monday that its financial position had deteriorated but described the fears as overblown and said it was working with regulators to improve its "safety and soundness." IndyMac, a national home lender burned by the mortgage meltdown, went public after depositors lined up at San Gabriel Valley branches starting Friday to pull out their money.

For opportunistic savers, IndyMac Bancorp's CD yields are a bonanza. Struggling to hold on to depositors, IndyMac is offering the highest yields in the nation on six-month and one-year certificates of deposit. And the troubled Pasadena-based thrift isn't just edging out competitors on yield -- it's trouncing them.

If you are an IndyMac Bank depositor, you probably have questions about the availability of your funds. Here are some answers: Should I worry about getting my money back? If you have less than $100,000 in your checking, savings and money market accounts or in certificates of deposit, you need not worry. The principal and interest are insured by the FDIC. The bank's 33 branches will be closed over the weekend and reopen Monday. Online and phone banking will also be unavailable until Monday.

The federal government took control of Pasadena-based IndyMac Bank on Friday in what regulators called the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Citing a massive run on deposits, regulators shut its main branch three hours early, leaving customers stunned and upset. One woman leaned on the locked doors, pleading with an employee inside: "Please, please, I want to take out a portion." All she could do was read a two-page notice taped to the door.

As thousands of customers waited hours in the heat Monday to withdraw deposits from failed IndyMac Bank, investors dumped the stocks of many mortgage lenders, precipitating the steepest one-day decline in banking shares since 1989. Southern California fixtures Downey Financial Corp. and FirstFed Financial Corp., specialists in the nontraditional mortgages that fueled the housing boom, were among the hardest hit, with their stock prices down 24% and 19% respectively.