CIT Announces Expiration of Withdrawal Rights for Notes Exchange Offer

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), a leading commercial finance company, announced today that the withdrawal period for its offers to exchange certain of its outstanding notes (the “Notes Exchange”) has expired. The exchange agent’s preliminary results indicate that less than $30 million in aggregate principal amount of notes previously tendered into the Notes Exchange were withdrawn by holders. Assuming satisfaction of the applicable conditions and a successful closing, the Notes Exchange is expected to generate $1.15 billion in regulatory capital.

Approximately $2.341 billion in aggregate principal amount of notes have been tendered into the Notes Exchange to date.

The Notes Exchange remains conditioned on CIT's application to become a bank holding company under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended, being approved by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and upon the purchase or commitment to purchase by the U.S. Department of the Treasury CIT's perpetual preferred stock pursuant to the Capital Purchase Program created under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Except as otherwise described above, the terms and conditions of the Notes Exchange are described in the Offering Memorandum, dated as of November 17, 2008, as amended and supplemented, and the related letter of transmittal. Holders eligible to participate in the Notes Exchange are encouraged to read such documents carefully prior to making a decision with respect to the Notes Exchange.

The securities offered in the Notes Exchange have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable federal securities laws, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that are based upon our current expectations and assumptions concerning future events, which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. The words “plan,” “will,” “expect,” “may,” “would,” or the negative of any of those words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, including without limitation, statements about our plans, strategies, prospects and expectations regarding the Notes Exchange or related future events, are forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties. While these statements represent our current judgment on what the future may hold, and we believe these judgments are reasonable, these statements are not guarantees of any events or financial results, and our actual results may differ materially due to numerous important factors that are described in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, as updated by our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. Many of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions are beyond our control, and may cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations. Important factors that could cause our actual results to be materially different from our expectations include, among others, final results of the Notes Exchange being different than current expectations; the ability to satisfy the conditions to the Notes Exchange; and the success, or lack thereof, of the transactions and other initiatives described in this press release, including our application to the Federal Reserve to become a bank holding company and the submission of our application to the U.S. Treasury to participate in the Capital Purchase Program by selling preferred stock to the U.S. Treasury. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which the statements were made. CIT undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, except where expressly required by law.