CIT, BMO and RBC Establish dealerAccess Joint Venture

CIT, Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada joined forces March 28, 2001 to establish dealerAccess. dealerAccess is an Internet-based e-commerce portal which will bring together automotive dealers in the United States and Canada with suppliers of auto finance, lease and insurance products at the point of sale. dealerAccess will offer a comprehensive range of processing services for automobile dealers and funders, including online credit applications, registrations, billing and payment processing. dealerAccess is committed to becoming the leading online multi-lender auto finance solution in North America.

Acting for CIT was in-house counsel Peter Dorsey, assisted by a team from Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP comprised of Greg Frenette and Greg Mueller (corporate/ commercial), Paul Tamaki (tax), Christine Ing (information technology), and Gary Daniel (intellectual property/trade marks). US legal advice was provided by Sidley Austin Brown & Wood (corporate/commercial) and Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP (regulatory).

Keith Perrett of Bank of Montreal retained Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP to assist him in the transaction. The Fraser team was led by Mike Kaplan (corporate/commercial) and included Christopher Steeves, Rick Kesler (tax), Don Luck and Andrea Feltham (information technology). US advice was provided to BMO by Chapman and Cutler.

In-house counsel Holly Shonaman provided legal advice to the Royal Bank of Canada and was assisted on US legal matters by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Rob Kreklewetz of Millar Wyslobicky Kreklewetz provided Canadian commodity tax advice to the parties.