CIT Group Inc. appointed Steve Solk as President of CIT Consumer Banking and President, California, effective immediately. This is in addition to his current responsibilities as President of CIT Business Capital and as a member of CIT Group’s Executive Management Committee. Solk will be based in Pasadena, California, and will continue to report directly to Chief Executive Officer Ellen Alemany.
“Steve is a catalyst and a leader who brings deep experience and expertise to our organization,” said Alemany. “As head of CIT Business Capital, he’s been instrumental in helping expand our specialty lending and leasing businesses across the strong technology-enabled platform we acquired through Direct Capital. The decision to have Steve run our Consumer Banking group will help to align our businesses, realize efficiencies and further streamline our operations.”
Commenting on his added responsibilities, Solk said, “Having the opportunity to run CIT Business Capital for the past year, I’m excited by the prospect to further leverage our OneWest Bank platform across the enterprise as we continue to execute our strategic priorities.”
Solk succeeds John Erickson, who previously decided to step down. “I want to thank John for his leadership over the past year and for agreeing to stay on as a strategic advisor until year-end,” said Alemany.
In addition to his new role as President of CIT Consumer Banking and President, California, Solk is President of CIT Business Capital and is responsible for CIT’s Direct Capital, Capital Equipment Finance, Equipment Finance, and Commercial Services businesses.
Previously, Solk was an executive vice president of Commercial Finance at RBS Citizens Bank and a member of Citizens’ Executive Leadership Group. In this role, he was responsible for executing growth strategies for four commercial banking specialty businesses, which included Franchise Finance, Business Capital, Asset Finance and Commercial Real Estate. Prior to RBS, Solk was responsible for retail banking and consumer and commercial lending for Commerce Bank of Harrisburg. Additionally, Solk served in several executive roles in the financial sector, including more than 20 years at Citibank where, he managed multiple lending and leasing specialty businesses and attained leading market positions in core target markets. Solk began his career at Bank of America, where he underwrote and managed corporate relationships.
Founded in 1908, CIT is a financial holding company with more than $65 billion in assets. Its principal bank subsidiary, CIT Bank, N.A., (Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender) has more than $30 billion of deposits and more than $40 billion of assets. It provides financing, leasing and advisory services principally to middle-market companies across a wide variety of industries primarily in North America, and equipment financing and leasing solutions to the transportation sector. It also offers products and services to consumers through its Internet bank franchise and a network of retail branches in Southern California, operating as OneWest Bank, a division of CIT Bank, N.A.