Florida's mortgage market, along with some help from California's equally troubled housing situation, has brought Washington Mutual down. Apparently, about two weeks ago, WaMu's weakned position became frightening to depositors, who began taking out their money. And that lead to its end.

WaMu was one of the most active mortgage lenders in Florida, before it began cutting back those operations. And it was a substantial employer.

By deposits, Washington Mutual is the fifth largest banking institution on Florida. It has $11.9 billion in deposits and it has 259 offices here, according to FDIC statistics.

The one thing that I have seen in past bank failures or transitions is that once the FDIC steps in, things run smoothly. I would expect very little disruption to depsitors whose funds are below the $100,000 FDIC insurance limit on most accounts. The figure is higher for retirement accounts and certain trusts.

And it's important to not classify all banks as troubled. Strong institutions, who sidestepped the risky lending practices of the last two years, will remain and will benefit from this financial meltdown.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is absorbing WaMu, paying $1.9 billion for its assets.

This failure is almost ten times larger than the failure of IndyMac Bank. WaMu had $307 billion in assets compared to IndyMac's $32 billion.