CEO to leave CIT Group at years end

Resignation comes two weeks after lender announces restructuring plans.Beleaguered lender CIT Group Inc. said Tuesday it is looking for its next chief executive.

Jeffrey M. Peek said he will resign effective Dec. 31, and also will vacate his chairman post. The resignation comes less than two weeks after CIT announced restructuring plans. The New York-based lender to some 22,000 small and midsize businesses in New Jersey maintains operations in Livingston.

Francis Ng, professor of finance with Rutgers University’s Business School, said a bankruptcy may be imminent for CIT regardless of the company’s restructuring and management changes. Potential buyers could pick up CIT’s assets, its business loans, through a bankruptcy, rather than ride to its rescue. “They may force small companies to pay off their loans immediately,” he said.

Ng said rather than another government bailout rescuing the company, he believes taxpayers’ money would be better spent helping small businesses survive.

CIT’s board of directors said it is forming a search committee to find Peek’s successor. Given the company’s restructuring plans, Peek said in a statement it was “the appropriate time to focus on a transition of leadership.”

E-mail João-Pierre Ruth at [email protected]

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