CIT Group CEO John Thain To Retire

(RTTNews) - CIT Group Inc. (CIT) Wednesday said John Thain will retire as Chief Executive of the company on March 31, 2016, but will remain as Chairman of the Board. Thain will be succeeded as CEO by board member Ellen Alemany.

Vice Chairman Steven Mnuchin also will step down at the end of March and will remain on the board. The company also appointed Controller Carol Hayles as Chief Financial Officer, effective November 1. Early this week, CIT announced CFO Scott Parker is leaving in November to become CFO of Springleaf Holdings Inc.

The company also said it will explore strategic initiatives to advance the company to a U.S. commercial bank. CIT said it will seek options for its $10 billion commercial air business and sell its CIT Canada and CIT China businesses.

"These strategic initiatives will position CIT for long-term success by further simplifying our bank-centric business model as we focus on meeting the financing needs of our U.S. small business and middle market customers. We believe these decisions will increase shareholder value," Thain said.

CIT closed Wednesday's regular trading at $39.88, down $0.28 or 0.70%, on the NYSE. The stock, however, gained $2.11 or 5.29% in the after-hours trade.