Washington  - The head of CIT Group Inc, a century-old US lender that could file for bankruptcy protection, plans to resign by year's end, the company said Tuesday.

Chairman and chief exectuvie officer Jeffrey Peek, 62, is the latest in a series of high profile finance leaders who are leaving the scene, including Bank of America's Kenneth Lewis and Morgan Stanley's John Mack.

CIT, which plays a key role in finance in the US, is currently tyring to avoid bankruptcy with a re-financing of billions of dollars in debt.

The US government has rejected a second bailout for CIT after committing 2.33 billion dollars in taxpayer funds in December 2008 to keep the lender afloat, Bloomberg financial news agency reported.

Peek joined CIT in 2003 after serving as head of the asset- management unit at Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group AG.

CIT lost 5 billion dollars in the last nine quarters as the collapse of the market for subprime mortgages sparked the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and cut off CITs short- term funding.(dpa)