CIT Group completes $3.4-billion purchase of OneWest Bank

CIT Group Inc. said Monday it completed its $3.4-billion acquisition of Pasadena-based OneWest Bank.

OneWest, with 70 retail branches in Southern California, will continue operating under that name as a unit of CIT’s CIT Bank. CIT Bank also will be based at OneWest’s Pasadena headquarters.

CIT, based in New York, is a major provider of commercial lending and leasing services that announced plans to purchase OneWest for cash and stock a year ago.

The combined company has about $65 billion in assets and $30 billion in deposits.

CIT will continue to be led by its chairman and chief executive John Thain. Steven Mnuchin, formerly chairman of OneWest’s parent company, IMB Holdco, joined CIT as vice chairman and a director.

There will be a “minimal” number of job cuts among OneWest’s 1,700 employees resulting from the merger, Thain said in a telephone interview.

He declined to provide a specific number of reductions.

“There will be some because there’s some duplication but that’s not the driver of the transaction,” Thain said. “There’s not that much overlap.”

Mnuchin led an investor group that created OneWest from the remains of IndyMac Bancorp, an aggressive mortgage lender that regulators seized in 2008 as the U.S. housing crisis and severe recession took hold.

Federal and state regulators approved CIT’s takeover last month after CIT and OneWest overcame objections over whether CIT would operate safely and benefit all sectors of the community.

CIT among other steps said it would deliver $5 billion in loans and other support over four years to benefit low-income areas.

In early trading Monday, CIT’s stock was down 14 cents to $46.90 a share.

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