Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain appointed CIT chief
Editor’s Note: This is good news for CIT, they really needed strong leadership to turn around the large independent business lender. Mr. Thain will have a large task at hand as well. CIT has a large amount of outstanding debt and they are not getting TARP assistance in the commercial paper market. He is looking for a 2-3 year turn around for the firm. If he can pull that off he will really be back on top of his game as a premier financial CEO. Good luck John.
The former chief executive of Merrill Lynch, John Thain, has been appointed as the new boss of US lender CIT Group, which recently emerged from bankruptcy.
CIT will pay Mr Thain $6m (£3.8m) a year – $500,000 in cash, $2.5m in stock to be held for one year, and $3m in stock to be held for three years. Mr Thain resigned from Merrill just after it merged with Bank of America at the start of last year.
He was criticised for allowing big bonuses despite Merrill’s hefty losses. These were paid out just days before the takeover by Bank of America.