IndyMac Bancorp Inc. (IMB) based in Pasadena, California with 33 retail branches and $32 billion in assets was seized by federal regulators on Friday. One of the latest victims of the credit crisis, the bank was a major player in the real estate boom this maybe one of the largest bank failures since the savings and loan scandals of the early 80s…

But IndyMac had long focused tightly on mortgages to customers who can’t provide the documentation required for conventional home loans - what are known as “Alt-A” mortgages. This sharp focus left no other business line on which the company could lean, he said.

Other analysts share that view.

Frederick Cannon of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. said IndyMac had only “a limited focus on the deposit business,” a high- return business that is the bread-and-butter of traditional savings-and-loan companies. On March 31, IndyMac reported $18.9 billion in deposits, 40% more than a year earlier. However, 36.4% of the company’s deposits are expensive and volatile brokered deposits.

The bulk of brokered deposits are likely to be withdrawn soon or run off within the next 12 months, Arnold and Cannon said. IndyMac disclosed two weeks ago that about $100 million of deposits had already been withdrawn after U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., raised concerns about the company in a letter to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairwoman

Sheila Bair.