Washington  - A group of private investors is to buy US bank IndyMac, which was seized by regulators in July, for 14 billion dollars, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said Friday in Washington.

The deal is to completed by early February, said the FDIC, the US agency that insures bank deposits and has been running the California-based bank since the summer when IndyMac became the largest US bank to fail in more than 20 years.

IndyMac fell victim to the sub-prime mortgage crisis that set off the broader financial turmoil worldwide, reporting almost 900 million dollars in losses as home prices tumbled and foreclosures climbed. It had specialized in so-called Alt-A mortgages, which didn't require borrowers to provide documentation on their incomes.

The investors include JC Flowers & Co, Dune Capital Management and Paulson & Co, a group of private-equity and hedge-fund investors. The group will also invest a further 1.3 billion dollars in cash into the bank.

IndyMac's collapse cost the FDIC between 8.5 billion and 9.4 billion dollars as it took on losses and reimbursed depositors. It was one of 25 US banks to fail in 2008.

The deal is among the first complete takeovers of a bank by private investors, which have been limited to minority stakes in the past. The FDIC decided last month to allow private investors to buy failed banks.