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The bulk of brokered deposits are likely to be withdrawn soon or run off within the next 12 months, Arnold and Cannon said. IndyMac disclosed two weeks ago that about $100 million of deposits had already been withdrawn after U.S. Sen.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.

The next president will face soaring foreclosures, insolvency at Freddie and Fannie, street protests against foreclosures, and a growing number of bank failures. It’s not too hard to guess what’s likely to happen next, is it?

The US, which most economists now agree is on the brink of recession, could be facing a slew of bank failures as a result of the ongoing credit crisis.

“We’re going to have some more bank failures that will come back more to historical norms and may go above that with time,” said John Dugan, the US comptroller of currency in an interview with the Financial Times. “That is a natural consequence of the economy going from historically exceptionally benign credit conditions to something that is more normal to something you would get in a downturn.”