Type – Public (NYSE: CIT)
Founded – 1908
Founder(s) – Henry Ittleson
Headquarters – New York City, United States
Key people – John Thain, CEO & Chairman
Industry – Financial services
Revenue – US$ 6.09 billion (2008)[2]
Operating income – US$ 1.96 billion (2008)
Net income – US$ -2.79 billion (2008)
Total assets US$ 80.44 billion (2008)
Total equity US$ 8.12 billion (2008)
Website cit.com

The company does business with more than 80% of the Fortune 1000, and lends to a million small and medium businesses and was included in Fortune 500.

Brief History

On February 11, 1908, Henry Ittleson founded the Commercial Credit and Investment Company in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1915 it moved to New York City and renamed itself Commercial Investment Trust and went by the initials of C.I.T. It remains in New York City today.

The company moved into a new building at 650 Madison Avenue in Manhattan in 1957 and passed $100 billion ($1 trillion in recent terms) in financing volume since its founding in 1959. In 1969, CIT entered the personal and home equity loan and leasing business and left auto financing.CIT was acquired by RCA Corporation in 1980.

In 1999, CIT acquired Toronto-based Newcourt Credit Group Inc. for approximately US$4 billion to create one of the largest publicly-owned leasing companies. CIT over-paid for Newcourt, and merger integration troubles forced CIT to draw upon emergency credit facilities with several banks to avoid bankruptcy. As other funding sources dried up, it was forced to sell itself to Tyco International Ltd. in June 2001.

CIT moved its global headquarters back to New York City, opening a brand-new headquarters in 2006 across from the New York Public Library. In 2008, CIT Group became a bank holding company in order to qualify for, and ultimately receive, $2.3 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds.

On July 13, 2009, Bloomberg TV reported that CIT was asking for FDIC loan guarantees. This was unsuccessful and by 1 November 2009, CIT Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and with the consent of its bondholders proposed to quickly emerge from bankruptcy court proceedings.

Products And Services

CIT’s Commercial Finance business
This division offers secured lending, leasing and factoring products including direct loans and leases, operating leases, leveraged and single investor leases, secured revolving lines of credit and term loans, credit protection, accounts receivable collection, import and export financing, debtor-in-possession and turnaround financing, and acquisition and expansion financing. Commercial Finance also offers investment banking advisory services.

CIT’s Specialty Finance business
This division consists of – home lending, student loans, vendor financing, small business loans, small/mid ticket product leasing and global insurance services.