CIT files bankruptcy, $2.3 billion in taxpayer funds likely lost

CIT Group, the giant small business lender, filed for a "pre-packaged bankruptcy" Sunday night carrying some $71 billion in assets, after last ditch attempts to avert such an outcome failed. The development will keep the doors open at the 101-year-old small business lender, but there will be heavy losses, including, most likely, $2.3 billion in taxpayer bailout funds.

CIT survived the Great Depression, but it couldn't weather the Great Recession. Its demise may be a sign that the wave of crumbling, sub-prime mortgage-infected financial giants has not ceased.