U.S. closes BankUnited, sells to private equity

WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - U.S. bank regulators on Thursday closed troubled Florida lender BankUnited Financial Corp BKUNA.O and sold its banking operations to a private equity consortium that includes WL Ross & Co.

BankUnited, which had $12.8 billion in assets and $8.6 billion in retail deposits, is the biggest bank failure so far this year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said it estimates BankUnited's failure will cost its insurance fund $4.9 billion.

The private equity group buying BankUnited is headed by John Kanas, a veteran of the banking industry and former head of North Fork Bank. Other members of the group besides WL Ross & Co, include Carlyle Investment Management, Blackstone Capital Partners, and Centerbridge Capital Partners. (Reporting by Karey Wutkowski and Jon Stempel; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)