Major US lender 'on the brink'

CIT's customers include retailers, restaurants and airlines

Days of talks on a possible last-ditch bail-out between the US government and troubled New York-based lender CIT Group Inc have come to an end.

The company said there was no appreciable likelihood of additional government support in the short term.

Analysts says the development raises the chances that the company will file for bankruptcy.

The failure of CIT would remove a key source of credit for thousands of small and middle-sized US firms.

The US Treasury said in a statement that the government needed to "keep the threshold high" for exceptional aid to individual companies.

Century

CIT, which was founded more than a century ago, says its managers, directors and advisers are evaluating alternatives.

If it goes bankrupt it will join Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and Washington Mutual Inc among large financial services companies to collapse since the acceleration of the credit crisis in September last year.

Analysts say the position of CIT has deteriorated so far that officials fear that even a short-term Treasury loan might not save it.

Trading in CIT shares was halted on Wednesday afternoon.