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CIT Group Inc., the commercial lender running short of cash, said it probably wouldn’t receive a federal bailout and was studying alternatives with advisers.

"There is no appreciable likelihood of additional government support being provided over the near term," the New York-based company said Wednesday.

CIT, once the biggest independent commercial lender, faces bankruptcy if no aid emerges, Standard & Poor’s said earlier this week.

The Treasury, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have been debating whether to risk more taxpayer funds, on top of the $2.33 billion granted to CIT in December, to keep the lender afloat. President Barack Obama was briefed on CIT in his regular meeting with economic advisers, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Regulators have been trying to gauge whether a bankruptcy would present a risk to the rest of the financial system. Supporters point to 1 million customers, including 300,000 retailers, who may lose funding.

"It’s a killer," said Sean Egan, president of Egan-Jones Ratings Co individual health insurance. "What’s next is that they’re going to have to scrape for capital to meet the next loan payment, and it’s highly likely that they’re going to file for protection."

CIT has battled cash shortages and faces $1 billion of bonds maturing next month. The lender gained 1.9 percent Wednesday before trading was halted by the New York Stock Exchange.

"CIT is most certainly too important to the retail industry to be allowed to fail, and the retail industry is too important to the economy to be placed under additional stress," Tracy Mullin, chief executive of the National Retail Federation, said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

A CIT failure would "impact thousands of retailers" and "that cannot be allowed to happen at a time when retailers are already struggling to survive the national recession."

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