CIT Group Inc.’s decision to seek bankruptcy court protection probably will keep money flowing to bondholders and 1 million customers of the 101-year-old commercial lender. Shareholders and taxpayers won’t be as fortunate, Bloomberg reported.

CIT’s reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code may give bondholders new notes at 70 cents on the dollar plus new common stock. CEO Jeffrey Peek said clients will be able to get funds. Common stock owners could be mostly wiped out, and the U.S. Treasury Department said it won’t recoup much, if any, of the $2.33 billion of taxpayer money that went into CIT, the largest firm to go bankrupt after getting a federal bailout.

CIT failed to win a second government bailout in July or to persuade bondholders to swap $30 billion in debt to prevent a bankruptcy filing this month.

The New York-based lender posted more than $5 billion in losses in the last nine quarters. The filing is the fifth-largest U.S. bankruptcy by assets.

None of CIT’s operating subsidiaries, including Utah-based CIT Bank, were included in the filing, CIT said in a statement.

The lender funds about 1 million businesses such as Dunkin’ Brands Inc. in Canton, Mass., and Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc., the bankrupt clothing chain based in Bellevue, Wash. CIT also provides financing to about 2,000 vendors supplying 300,000 U.S. retailers, according to a July statement from the National Retail Federation.

CIT’s struggles sparked concern among retail trade groups and lawmakers that customers would be left without financing while traditional banks also were cutting back credit. CIT originated $4.4 billion of new business as of June 30, less than half the $11.3 billion it originated in the first six months of last year.

The lender’s clients “are not doomed,” said said Sean Egan, president of Egan-Jones Ratings Co. “The next step for the company is going to be an assessment of whether or not they want to continue to do business in various areas. The truth is in the middle.”