RILA urges government action to protect CIT

Washington, D.C. The Retail Industry Leaders Association Thursday urged federal action to protect the struggling finance company CIT Group from collapse. RILA called CIT Group an important resource for retail businesses “struggling to meet their financing needs in the current credit environment.”

In a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, RILA president Sandy Kennedy asked federal officials to “reconsider action to ensure that this situation does not create further pressures on the current credit market.”

“Any additional tightening of the credit markets will only exacerbate the constraints on our members’ ability to provide the products that consumers seek and most importantly, to maintain millions of retail jobs across the nation,” said Kennedy.

In related news, Reuters reported that CIT, as soon as tomorrow, is seeking to line up $2 to $3 billion in secured financing from private investors over the next day.