And Today's Bank Failure Is... Washington Mutual

Washington Mutual (WaMu) has been closed by its regulator, making it the biggest US bank to fail.

The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) stepped in to shut the mortgage lender before selling its assets to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9bn (£1.0bn).

The OTS said it was worried WaMu would run out of cash as $16.7bn of deposits had been withdrawn since 15 September.

WaMu was one of the lenders worst-hit by the collapse of the US housing market and soaring mortgage defaults.

"With insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations, WaMu was in an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business," the OTS said.

The bank had about $307bn of assets but only about $188bn of deposits.