CIT is hardly a premiere bank, but it has historically been a big provider of credit to small companies. Unfortunately, as the economy tightened it had to cut back--to the chagrin of small business owners, who could have really used the liquidity.

CIT did more than start-up loans; it extended credit lines to going concerns and was heavily involved in factor financing. But over the past nine months, the lender has essentially ceased making new loans, reports CNNMoney. That "left small business advocates and owners with mixed feelings about whether CIT should be left to fail."

Of course, the lender had already taken $2.33 billion in taxpayer money via TARP. Some thought that would keep the credit flows open, but it didn't. It's unclear if that was a factor in the government decision not to pump more money into the company. 

For more:
- here's the article

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