Troubled US bank CIT has been offered a $6bn (£3.7bn) loan from investor¹ Carl Icahn as it tries to avoid bankruptcy².

陷入困境的美国银行CIT接受投资者卡尔伊坎60亿美元贷款以避免破产。

CIT provides funding for small and medium-sized firms

Mr Icahn said the loan was an alternative to a debt restructuring plan the bank has put forward, which he said favoured large bondholders.

However, some critics say taking the loan would not help CIT trim（整理，修整） its debt.

CIT - which lends to small and medium-sized businesses - has been close to bankruptcy since the US government denied it a bail-out（应急措施） earlier this year.

Mr Icahn argued that his loan would save the bank $150m in fees - saying its existing fundraising plan undervalued the firm and would see smaller investors³ lose out.

Hinderance

But Michael Gallo, of law firm DeCotiis, FitzPatrick, Cole & Wisler, said a loan from Mr Icahn may not be particularly effective.

"The whole intent of the [debt restructuring] is to reduce debt," Mr Gallo said.

"Replacing a loan with another loan doesn't really do it... It's just forestalling⁴（占先一步，垄断） the inevitable⁵."

Because the bank is one of the largest US lenders to retailers⁶, there is a fear that if CIT did collapse⁷, it would hinder（阻碍，打扰） the country's recovery from recession, removing a key source of credit for thousands of firms.

If CIT, founded more than a century ago, went bankrupt it would join Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual⁸ on the list of large financial services companies to collapse since the acceleration⁹ of the credit crisis in September last year.

But analysts¹⁰ say that if it did fail, it would be unlikely to have the same impact.