CIT Group, the 101-year old American commercial and finance company filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing today. With $71 billion in assets and $64.9 billion in liabilities, CIT Group is the 5th largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in US’ history.

The bondholders of the company, the largest of which is the well known Carl Icahn, one of the founders of the internet, said it would fund the restructuring process of the company as it try to exit from bankruptcy as soon as possible.

The bankruptcy “will allow CIT to continue to provide funding to our small business and middle-market customers,” Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Peek said in a statement.

CIT Group, which reported $3 billion of losses in the past eight quarters, received $2.3 billion from the Treasury on Dec. 31, giving the U.S. preferred stock and warrants. The company wasn’t given access to the FDIC’s debt-guarantee program. However, with its bankruptcy filing, The Treasury Department said the government probably won’t recover much, if any, of the $2.3 billion in taxpayer money that went to CIT.

According to the voluntary petition filed, CIT’s largest unsecured creditor is Bank of America as collateral agent for a $7.5 billion claim, and Bank of New York Mellon Corp., as a trustee for retail bonds with a claim of $3.2 billion. Canadian senior unsecured notes have a claim for $2.1 billion, and Citigroup Inc. also has a $2.1 billion claim as an administrative agent to bank debt due 2010.

CIT Group hired Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP as its legal counsel in the case tagged as case no. 09-16565 filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

This is another case of a huge bankruptcy filing that originated from subprime mortgages which caused the global recession which for sure would have a domino effect to the rest of lenders and businesses who have lent funds to the company and to the US economy as a whole.