Earnings from continuing operations of $48.1 million, $0.12 per share;

Home lending disposition closed, proceeds received, loss of $2.1 billion recorded

Credit reserves increased and capital ratios remain strong

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) today reported income from continuing operations of $48.1 million ($31.4 million after preferred dividends), or $0.12 per share, for the second quarter of 2008, down from $352.1 million ($344.6 million after preferred dividends), or $1.76 per share for the comparable 2007 quarter. Year to date, the net loss from continuing operations totaled $203.6 million ($227.8 million after preferred dividends), or $1.00 per share, compared to net income of $528.4 million ($344.6 million after preferred dividends), or $2.61 per share in 2007. Including losses from discontinued operations, CIT reported a net loss for the second quarter of 2008 of $2.1 billion, or $7.88 per share, compared to a net loss of $135 million or $0.69 per share, in the second quarter of 2007.

“We made significant progress on the strategic capital and liquidity initiatives we outlined earlier this year despite challenging market conditions,” said Jeffrey M. Peek, Chairman and CEO. “We will continue to take actions to right-size the Company to enhance profitability. To that end, the sale of our home lending business, which negatively impacted our earnings and overshadowed the performance of our core commercial businesses, has eliminated a major area of risk and uncertainty from our portfolio. In the second half of this year we will further strengthen our balance sheet, improve our funding profile and continue to meet the financing needs of our clients."

The following table displays the components of net income/(loss). The loss from discontinued operations reflects the home lending business including the loss on sale in the current period. Prior period balances have been conformed to reflect the home lending business as a discontinued operation.

Income from continuing operations reflects losses on asset sales completed for liquidity purposes and other related charges in both quarters, though the first quarter results were impacted to a greater degree. Second quarter results include $9.2 million in pretax losses ($5.6 million after tax, $0.02 EPS) relating to asset sales and $19.5 million in pretax securitization impairment charges ($11.9 million after tax, $0.04 EPS) that were triggered by liquidity considerations. The prior quarter included pretax charges of $112.5 million and $33.2 million ($69.5 million and $20.1 million after tax, $0.36 and $0.11 EPS) related to asset sales and securitization impairments. The prior quarter also included a $148.1 million pretax charge ($89.5 million after tax, $0.47 EPS) relating to the discontinuation of our commercial paper hedging program.

Other items impacting the results include current and prior quarter provisions for severance and real estate exit activities of $17.0 million and $69.1 million ($10.3 million and $42.4 million after tax, $0.04 and $0.22 EPS) and a $55.9 million ($0.29 EPS) favorable income tax adjustment in the first quarter.

Also of note in the second quarter are a $60 million increase to the reserve for credit losses and approximately $15 million of net interest costs on our significant cash liquidity position, which is invested in lower yielding, short-term investments.

We made considerable progress advancing our strategy to transition CIT into a smaller company exclusively focused on commercial finance and took deliberate measures to bolster our balance sheet, by completing the following actions:

• Raised $1.6 billion in capital through the sale of common and preferred stock.
• Closed on the sale of the home lending business and manufactured housing portfolio in early July, with approximately $9.8 billion of finance receivable unpaid principal balance and other assets and $4.3 billion of debt transferring to the purchasers and substantially all of the $1.8 billion in cash proceeds received.
• Reduced commercial finance and lease assets by $3 billion by selling $2.1 billion of loans and $300 million of aircraft, syndicating new loan originations and limiting new business volume.

The ratio of total tangible equity to managed assets at June 30, 2008 improved to 9.02% (excluding home lending assets) from 8.33% at March 31, 2008, and is above the Company’s 8.5% target. Approximately 80% of commercial assets remain unencumbered ($44 billion).

Paramount to our long-term success is returning to a more balanced funding model. During the second quarter, we completed several financings that extended our liquidity horizon through 2009 including:

• Received $0.8 billion of proceeds from secured financings, including public equipment securitizations and asset-backed conduit financings.
• Obtained a $3 billion long-term, committed financing facility from Goldman Sachs to finance both existing assets and new originations across multiple asset classes.
• Executed a secured aircraft financing facility, under which we expect to finance the $1.5 billion of Airbus plane deliveries scheduled through 2009. In July, we expect to finance $350 million under the facility.
• CIT Bank, our Utah-based industrial loan corporation, originated $650 million of commercial loans.

• Repaid $5.6 billion of unsecured term debt and commercial paper.

We ended the second quarter with $9.2 billion of cash, including $6.4 billion of immediately available cash, $1.0 billion of cash and short-term investments at CIT Bank (available to fund commercial originations by the bank), $0.6 billion of other cash balances, and $1.2 billion of restricted cash (largely related to securitizations).

While it is our intention to return to the unsecured term debt markets, we continue to maintain an alternate funding plan that enables us to meet at least 12-months of estimated liquidity needs without accessing the unsecured debt markets. We believe that our completed liquidity initiatives, combined with potential secured financings, additional asset sales and cash flow from operations, position the Company well to meet liquidity needs through the end of 2009.

Consolidated Financial Highlights of Continuing Operations:

Net Finance Revenue

• Net finance revenue was up 3% from last quarter, outpacing the slight increase in average earning assets.
• Net finance revenue as a percentage of average earning assets was 2.34%, up from 2.28% last quarter, as higher rental income and the benefit from the timing of rate resets (ie. liability re-priced in advance of corresponding asset yield) were offset by the impact of higher non-accrual loans and the increased cost of liquidity.
• Operating lease net revenue was 6.73% of average operating leases, down slightly from 6.76% last quarter.

Other Income

• Other Income includes $9.2 million of pretax losses on the asset sales completed for liquidity purposes and $20 million in impairment charges on retained interests triggered by liquidity considerations. The prior quarter included an impairment charge of $33 million reflecting the re-pricing of debt costs underlying one of our vendor securitization conduit vehicles.
• Fees and other income declined from the prior quarter on lower securitization related accretion and the liquidity related impairment of retained interests.
• Factoring commissions were down from last quarter due to seasonal declines in factoring volumes and lower commission rates.
• Gains on receivable sales and syndication fees were down from last quarter reflecting lower sale prices in the commercial loan market.
• Commercial loan sales and syndication volume increased from last quarter as we sold receivables for liquidity purposes.
• Strong equipment gains reflect the aircraft sales that closed in the second quarter and a $10 million gain on sale of a foreclosed energy plant asset.

Credit Quality – Commercial

• Net charge-offs as a percentage of average finance receivables were 0.56% for the commercial businesses, down from 0.63% last quarter as that quarter included a $22 million charge-off of a loan to an energy company that filed for bankruptcy.
• 60+ day owned delinquencies for the commercial businesses were 2.43% of finance receivables, up from 1.70% last quarter, primarily due to weakening trends in certain consumer-related sectors, such as retail, and the inclusion of the aforementioned energy loan that was placed on non-accrual in the prior quarter, but is expected to be brought current in the third quarter.
• Non-performing assets increased for the commercial businesses and were 2.03% of finance receivables at June 30, 2008, up from 1.68% from last quarter. Large-ticket commercial non-performing assets are reserved to expected realizable value based on underlying collateral and cash flows.
• The commercial reserve for credit losses increased by $36 million. The reserve for credit losses as a percentage of finance receivables (excluding specific reserves for non-performing accounts) increased to 1.25% from 1.23% last quarter.

Credit Quality – Consumer Segment

• Net charge-offs in the Consumer segment were $28 million, down from $31 million last quarter as lower charge-offs of unsecured consumer loans were offset by a slight increase in charge-offs of private student loans.
• 60+ day owned delinquencies were 4.98%, up modestly from 4.90% last quarter. Non-performing assets increased to $167 million from $87 million last quarter. The increase is due to student loans affected by the bankruptcy of a pilot training school last quarter.
• Reserves for credit losses for our private student lending portfolio were increased by approximately $23 million during the quarter to approximately $161 million at June 30, 2008, most of which relates to loans to students of a pilot training school.

Expenses

• Salaries and general operating expenses were up $14 million from last quarter, as lower operating expenses and headcount were offset by annual merit increases and higher professional fees and incentive compensation accruals, due to a one-time downward adjustment in incentive compensation accruals in the first quarter of 2008. Year to date, salaries and general operating expenses were down approximately $60 million, reflecting decreases across most expense categories, primarily lower salary and incentive compensation accruals.
• Employee headcount for continuing operations totaled approximately 5,425 at June 30, 2008, down from 5,735 at March 31, 2008, and 6,430 a year ago.
• Second quarter charges for severance and the disposition of facilities primarily related to the cessation of student lending originations totaled $17 million and reflect reductions of approximately 170 employees. Year to date charges totaled $86 million and reflect reductions of approximately 700 employees throughout the organization. Expected annual savings from these year to date actions are approximately $94 million, of which approximately $17 million was realized in the current quarter.

Income Tax Provision

• The effective tax rate of 30.7% from continuing operations for the quarter was impacted by higher state and local taxes. The rate for the full year 2008 is expected to be significantly lower.

Volume and Assets

• Total origination volumes, excluding factoring, declined from last quarter and last year as we have limited new origination volumes to balance our liquidity goals with franchise value considerations. Origination volume in our commercial businesses for the quarter was $4.9 billion, down from $5.1 billion last quarter.
• Excluding the home lending sale, managed assets were down 4.6% from last quarter to $71.7 billion as the Company controlled balance sheet growth. The largest declines were in the Corporate Finance segment, reflecting asset sales, and lower Trade Finance levels due to seasonal trends and general economic conditions.
• Sales and syndication activity for the current quarter totaled $2.0 billion (40% of commercial origination volume) excluding the asset-based lending receivable sales previously announced, up from $0.5 billion (10%) in the prior quarter.
• Financing and leasing assets held for sale were $1.0 billion at June 30, 2008, down from $2.6 billion from last quarter due to the completed sales of $1.2 billion of revolving asset-based commercial loans, $0.5 billion of other loans and $300 million in commercial aircraft.

Convertible Preferred / Earnings per Share

• Outstanding common shares increased to 285.2 million from 191.6 million at the end of March 2008 due to the previously mentioned issuance of 91 million common shares as part of a capital raise in April.
• The April issuance of a $575 million convertible preferred has the potential to convert into an additional 45.5 million common shares at a conversion price of approximately $12.65.
• Given our current income levels and stock price, the earnings per share and other per share calculations do not include either the full effect of the common shares issued in April or the dilutive effect of the potential preferred conversion and other potentially dilutive securities.

Segment Results:

Corporate Finance

• Total net revenues (the sum of net finance revenue and other income) decreased from last quarter, reflecting the sale of finance receivables. Other income was up from last quarter and included a gain on sale of approximately $10 million on a foreclosed energy plant asset.
• Net finance revenue as a percentage of average earning assets declined from last quarter. Volume was down 18% from last quarter, impacted by weak market conditions and management’s decision to limit new origination volumes. The current quarter includes approximately $650 million of loans originated by CIT Bank.
• Net charge-offs were below the prior quarter, which included the previously mentioned charge-off for an energy company that filed for bankruptcy. Delinquencies and non-performing assets increased from last quarter, primarily in consumer-related sectors such as media and gaming, and commercial real estate. The increase in delinquencies also includes the energy loan that was put on nonperforming status last quarter.
• Net income of $59 million and return on risk-adjusted capital of 9% improved from prior quarter results.

Transportation Finance

• Total net revenues were up over last quarter due to growth and strong gains on equipment sales, in both aerospace and rail. Our commercial aircraft portfolio continued to be fully utilized. Rail utilization remained solid at 96% including customer commitments to lease, and returns were strong due in part to increased gains on railcars sold.
• Net finance revenue as a percentage of average earning assets after depreciation was up from last quarter on strength in non-operating lease margins. Operating lease margins were down slightly, driven by softer aerospace rates.
• Volume was up slightly from last quarter. All aircraft scheduled for delivery in our aerospace order book through early 2010 have been placed.
• Credit quality continued strong with no net charge-offs, and modestly lower delinquencies and non-performing asset levels.
• Return on risk-adjusted capital increased to 21% from 20% last quarter.

Trade Finance

• Total net revenues were down from last quarter due to seasonally lower volume coupled with the effects of a weaker US economy and retail sales in the United States.
• Net finance revenue as a percentage of average earning assets decreased on lower market interest rates and higher funding costs.
• Credit metrics weakened as net charge-offs, delinquencies and non-performing assets were up over last quarter and last year reflecting economic softness, particularly among retailers.
• Return on risk-adjusted capital declined to 13% from 16% last quarter.

Vendor Finance

• Total net revenues were down from last quarter reflecting the sale of our equity interest in the U.S. Dell vendor relationship in late 2007, lower securitization gains, impairment charges and reduced receivable sale and syndication fees.
• Other income includes pre-tax impairment charges of $20 million and $33 million in the second and first quarters, respectively, primarily reflecting the repricing of debt costs underlying a securitization conduit vehicle.
• Net finance revenue as a percentage of average earning assets after depreciation was down from last quarter due to higher funding costs.
• Credit losses were up slightly over last quarter, but delinquencies and non-performing asset levels declined.
• Total new business volume was up over the prior quarter, as declines in Dell volumes were offset by new vendor relationships.
• Net income of $11 million and return on risk-adjusted capital of 3% improved from prior quarter results. Excluding the impairment charges on retained interests, return on risk-adjusted capital was down from last quarter.

Consumer

• Total net revenues were up from last quarter due to improved funding costs.
• Net charge-offs decreased from last quarter in unsecured consumer loan portfolios. Delinquencies were flat with last quarter, while non-performing assets were up reflecting the private student loans affected by the first quarter bankruptcy of a pilot training school.
• Reserves for credit losses were increased by $23 million for the private loan portfolio.
• Early in the quarter we ceased the origination of new government guaranteed student loans and recorded a pre-tax restructuring charge of approximately $13 million. We are no longer originating any student loans, but we will continue to service the $11.7 billion government guaranteed portfolio.
• Return on risk-adjusted capital increased from last quarter, which included a large provision for credit losses.

Corporate and Other

• The current quarter includes charges of approximately $49 million that reflect interest and indirect costs associated with discontinued operations and a provision for credit loss reserves totaling $61 million to increase both specific impaired loan reserves for Corporate Finance and Trade Finance exposures and to increase overall reserves.
• During the quarter, approximately $15 million of net interest costs were incurred as a result of maintaining higher than average cash balances and investing those balances in low risk, low return assets.
• Other charges in the quarter include $16.7 million of preferred stock dividends. The 2008 year to date period also contains a charge for interest rate swaps related to the commercial paper program that were terminated, as well as the severance and real estate costs associated with streamlining efforts.

Discontinued Operations (Home Lending)

• On July 1, we announced the sale of the home lending business and manufactured housing portfolio. The sale of assets and assumption of debt were completed in early July and we received over $1.7 billion of the total $1.8 billion cash consideration. Final payment will be received upon closing the servicing operation sale, which is expected in the first quarter of 2009. We have no residual risk on this transaction outside of normal representations and warranties which have been reserved for as part of the net loss recorded.
• Consolidated results for the quarter included $435 million of tax benefits related to the reported loss from discontinued operations. The year-to-date results included $633 million of tax benefits related to the discontinued home lending business.
• In connection with discontinued operations accounting, certain interest expense and operating expenses that would have been allocated to the Home Lending segment, absent the sale, have instead been allocated to Corporate & Other as part of continuing operations, as presented in the following table, which reflects amounts for the quarter ended June 30, 2008. Therefore, interest expense within discontinued operations corresponds to debt of $6.1 billion, representing the secured financing assumed by the buyer and the debt that we expect to repay with the proceeds.

• Assets and liabilities relating to the home lending business are aggregated and presented as assets of / liabilities of discontinued operations on the balance sheet.

Conference Call and Webcast:

We will discuss this quarter’s results, as well as ongoing strategy, on a conference call and audio webcast today at 9:00 am (EDT). Interested parties may access the conference call live today by dialing 866-831-6272 for U.S. and Canadian callers or 617-213-8859 for international callers, and reference access code “CIT Group” or access the audio webcast at the following website: http://ir.cit.com. An audio replay of the call will be available beginning shortly after the conclusion of the call until 11:59 pm (EDT) July 24, 2008, by dialing 888-286-8010 for U.S. and Canadian callers or 617-801-6888 for international callers with the access code 51688000, or at the following website: http://ir.cit.com.

About CIT:

CIT (NYSE: CIT) is a global commercial finance company that provides financial products and advisory services to more than one million customers in over 50 countries across 30 industries. A leader in middle market financing, CIT has more than $70 billion in managed assets and provides financial solutions for more than half of the Fortune 1000. A member of the S&P 500 and Fortune 500, it maintains leading positions in asset-based, cash flow and Small Business Administration lending, equipment leasing, vendor financing and factoring. The CIT brand platform, Capital Redefined, articulates its value proposition of providing its customers with the relationship, intellectual and financial capital to yield infinite possibilities. Founded in 1908, CIT is celebrating its Centennial throughout 2008. www.cit.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements (including statements regarding future financial and operating results) involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond CIT’s control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. All statements contained in this release that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking, and the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “estimate,” “plan,” “target,” and similar expressions are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. The transactions, plans and arrangements related to the Company’s liquidity plan and described in this release are subject to a number of uncertainties, and there can be no assurances that any or all such transactions, plans or arrangements will be undertaken, or, if undertaken, completed, or if completed, will be completed on the agreed terms. Economic, business, funding market, competitive and/or regulatory factors, among others, affecting CIT’s businesses are examples of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. More detailed information about these factors are described in CIT’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2008. CIT is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This release includes certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined under SEC rules. As required by SEC rules, we have provided a reconciliation of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, which is available with this release and on our website at http://ir.cit.com.

Individuals interested in receiving future updates on CIT via e-mail can register at http://newsalerts.cit.com