US-based commercial lender CIT Group has
launched its online consumer bank to help diversify funding
sources.
CIT has said in a statement that CIT Bank will
offer certificates of deposits through the internet. CIT Bank may
also offer current, savings, online bill pay and mobile banking
options in 2012, according to the statement.
The CEO of CIT, John Thain, had
announced the plans of launching retail operations online while
speaking at the Barclays Capital conference in New York in
September, where Thain had mentioned that he and other CIT
employees were testing the online retail service.
Thain had also added that “you can raise
billions and billions of dollars on the internet relatively
easily.”
Thain mentioned in the recent CIT statement,
“The launch of CIT Bank online is another important step in our
efforts to diversify our funding sources into stable, low-cost
deposit products.”
The development of online deposit-taking is
also a “significant positive” for regulators, Thain said. However,
CIT will likely acquire branches “at some point” to appease
regulators, Thain had mentioned in September.
CIT has more than $35bn in finance and leasing
assets.
