CIT Group Questions

If you have the option, I would choose Jefferies. CIT I think of more as a commercial lender. I guess they have an IB group but they are not well known. I don't know what kind of setup you have with the mentor at Jeffries but obviously, depending on your exit op preferences, you can't go wrong with ML/LB.

I interviewed with CIT group for a lateral senior analyst role earlier this year. My impression was that they were still trying to find a culture and re-establish themselves in the market place. Also, they were pretty up front with me in regards to having to gett used to the immense amount of government oversight they are still under, and how that was effecting getting business done.

BTW, the posistion was in the transportation levfin group.

Awesome, thanks.

Anyone else?

Curious, was this for CIT's transport leasing group (plane/railcar finance etc) or for the transport practice for general corporate lev fin, or both? I know at one point transportation lease finance was its own group, not sure if that's still the case.

Should have looked at their website first, pretty clearly laid out on there.

Yeah, this is for their corporate finance lev fin group

I know a few people who work there. It's a very reputable name to a lot of large corporations and work closely with many ibanks. They are a very large lending/financing firm dealing with a lot of F500 companies. From what I know a lot of their lending is to large equip co's. They recently opened an investment banking arm a few years back. I know someone who works in their M&A division and seems to be busy with dealflow (mainly healthcare). I also believe there have been a few internal shake ups and less-than-perfect performances in the past few years, including a few layoffs (like many other fin institutions during this time)

As far as compensation, I'm not positive but I wouldn't be surprised if your description was accurate. The culture seems to be pretty work intensive and the people I've talked to are very personable at the same time.

If you're interested in their corp fin department and want to do leveraged finance it seems like a really good opportunity. Good luck with everything.

I interviewed with them last year. I interviewed with the industrial group and the healthcare group. As far as I know they are mainly a commercial lender with the exception of the healthcare group which does M&A type work. At the time the healthcare group was the gem of the company (according to the healthcare MD) and was run mainly by ex Citi bankers.

Can anyone comment on the hours?

Shit Group is not worth it.

Anyone else?

would be interested in hearing thoughts on their sponsor groups

would be interested in hearing thoughts on their sponsor groups

Bump

Very much MM/lower MM for what it's worth, and pre-2007 very dependent on using their balance sheet to "buy" deals.

They're working to rebuild themselves; IMO their most valuable corporate assets/franchises are their non-corp fin groups like leasing, trade finance, consumer finance, etc. Working as an actual lender/underwriter would be preferable to being in corp fin advisory (IB) to me, though I'm not sure how they organize it anymore-there may not be a distinction.

Trade finance is basically factoring and working capital lines, it's very different from cash-flow based lending and I'm not sure how transferable the skillset would be. CIT is a big player within that space, though.

Kenny_Powers_CFAVery much MM/lower MM for what it's worth, and pre-2007 very dependent on using their balance sheet to "buy" deals.

They're working to rebuild themselves; IMO their most valuable corporate assets/franchises are their non-corp fin groups like leasing, trade finance, consumer finance, etc. Working as an actual lender/underwriter would be preferable to being in corp fin advisory (IB) to me, though I'm not sure how they organize it anymore-there may not be a distinction.

Trade finance is basically factoring and working capital lines, it's very different from cash-flow based lending and I'm not sure how transferable the skillset would be. CIT is a big player within that space, though.

Hey, could you explain a bit more about what exactly trade finance is, appreciate it

I had an opportunitity to interview for trade finance. Any idea on compensation in general and for trade finance?

Not sure, would expect it to be below street.

Receivables lending, purchase order financing, vendor/inventory loans, and letters of credit are all forms of trade finance. Google those terms and you should be able to find plenty of resources.

Not really in the conversation... they are starting up their investment banking practice as part of new leadership that was brought over from GE Capital... will use their commercial banking/specialty finance balance sheet to drive business much like bank of america securities/wachovia securities etc...

i mean, i fell it's definately in the conversation, maybe more specifically corpfin than ibanking, but it's an 80billion mktcap firm, you're saying it gets no respect on the street?

they offer analyst training programs...i guess im wondering how that stacks up against, say, UBS's or Merrill's all else being held equal, in terms of prestige exit ops.

thx.

Your exit ops will have almost nothing to do with the bank you went to (when comparing among BBs, maybe GS or MS will give you an edge) and everything to do with how well you sell your experience during your interviews. Seeing as two people can go through the analyst program at the same bank and come out with vastly different experiences, the comparison is just a waste of time.

Realize this is dated at this point - but out of curiousity how'd things pan out?

Not sure about their other groups, but their MM M&A group has recently improved greatly. They just recently acquired Edgeview Partners a well regarded boutique M&A shop (mostly ex-Bowles Hollowell bankers).