Evolution of a Money Lender

Jeff Peek isfascinated by how much CIT Group, the financing business he joined a year ago, has evolved from its early days. Its present relationship with Dell Computer illustrates the point, says Mr Peek, who became chief executive in July. CIT exclusively offers Dell’s customers loans to buy computers.

“The typical Dell computer gets sold on the telephone in 12 minutes and 33 seconds,” says Mr Peek, over breakfast at a Manhattan hotel. “The financing option gets covered in 69 seconds. You don’t have time to ask what the interest rate is.”

Such agreements, Mr Peek says, build on the work of Henry Ittelson, CIT’s founder who started the business by lending money to clients to buy horse-drawn carriages. Later he pioneered the idea of installment plans used to purchase cars such as Ford Model Ts.

Al Gamper, CIT’s chairman, chose Mr Peek to come from outside the company and, ultimately, to run it because he wanted fresh ideas about how CIT should evolve further but without radical change.

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