CIT Bank provides lending, leasing, and other financial and advisory services, primarily to small and middle-market companies across select industries through its Commercial Finance, Rail, Real Estate Finance, and Business Capital divisions. The bank also offers residential mortgage lending and deposits to its customers through its Retail Banking division. CIT Bank's loans and leases are primarily commercial loans, consumer loans, and operating lease equipment. Through its Retail Banking segment, CIT Bank provides deposit accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, home mortgages, and working capital loans to businesses. Through its OneWest Bank division, it also offers checking accounts.
In October 2011, John Thain, Chairman and CEO of CIT, announced the launch of CIT Bank's retail online banking platform. The online bank was launched as a way for CIT to diversify its funding sources. The online platform initially offered a range of certificates of deposit directly to consumers as well as to institutions.
Growth of bank
With the launch of its online platform, CIT began to transfer the majority of its activity and business through the bank with the goal of virtually funding all of CIT's U.S. lending and leasing volume. In 2011, CIT Group had transferred its Corporate Finance middle-market lending activities and its small business lending activities into the bank. Following each platform transfer, related new originations were then funded by CIT Bank using its available cash, deposits, and secured financings. In 2012, CIT Bank began offering online savings accounts. Additionally, nearly all of CIT’s U.S. new business originations were in CIT Bank in 2012. The bank raised more than $4.5 billion in online deposits and expanded its business activities to include equipment financing, commercial real estate lending, and railcar leasing. The bank also closed a committed funding facility to support financing to U.S. middle market businesses.
OneWest Bank merger
Effective as of August 3, 2015, CIT Group acquired IMB HoldCo LLC, the parent company of OneWest Bank. CIT Bank, a Utah-state chartered bank and a wholly owned subsidiary of CIT, merged with and into OneWest Bank, with OneWest Bank surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of CIT with the name CIT Bank, National Association. Prior to the OneWest transaction, CIT Bank was regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions.
Recent history
In December 2018, CIT announced that Robert Rubino had been named President of CIT Bank and head of Commercial Banking, effective February 25, 2019. Rubino was previously the Co-President of Santander Bank, N.A. and head of Commercial Banking. In January 2020, CIT the parent company of CIT Bank, NA announced its acquisition of Mutual of Omaha Bank.
