CIT Group, one of the biggest lenders to small businesses in the States, has recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy after winning the approval for a prepackaged reorganization plan from a New York bankruptcy court. The reorganization reduces CIT’s total debt by 10.5 billion dollars while deferring other debt payments. CIT Group filed for protection in November after a debt exchange offer failed, and reported total assets of 71 billion dollars and liabilities of almost 65 billion. That made CIT bankruptcy the fifth largest in the US history. The company stated that its collapse was due to losses tied to subprime home loans and its inability to get a second government bailout. CIT got a US government bailout of  2.3 billion dollars last year at the peak of the financial crisis. In July when the company sunk deeper into trouble, the officials refused further help. Read more »