The Bush administration paid a price for its decision not to save investment bank Lehman Brothers, which had eight times more assets than CIT. Lehman's collapse helped spark the financial crisis last fall. Asked about CIT, a Treasury Department spokeswoman said in an e-mail that "even during periods of financial stress, we believe that there is a very high threshold for exceptional government assistance to individual companies." With its assets deteriorating and dangerously little cash on hand, the news left CIT with few options outside of bankruptcy. A filing could come as early as Wednesday night, analysts said. A bankruptcy filing would wipe out CIT's shareholders and the government's $2.3 billion stake. But CIT's clients would not automatically lose their lines of credit, longtime banking analyst Bert Ely said. Still, with other lenders to retailers already under financial strain, many CIT clients may lose their financing options.