GMAC replaces chief executive as it negotiates for more aid

The troubled auto and home lender GMAC Financial Services said Monday that chief executive Alvaro de Molina is stepping down and that Michael A. Carpenter, a member of the company's board of directors, has been named his successor.

De Molina's sudden resignation came as the lender negotiates with the Treasury Department over a third round of taxpayer assistance. GMAC provides the financing for dealers and customers of General Motors and Chrysler, and its survival is a crucial part of the Obama administration's restructuring of the auto industry. However, the company's finances have been haunted by bad loans it made during the housing boom.

GMAC has received $12.5 billion in taxpayer money. It has been in talks with the Treasury over additional aid after the federal government's "stress tests" revealed that GMAC was unable to raise the $11.5 billion that regulators said it needed to withstand losses if the economy sours.

The company said it has asked the government to postpone any decision on additional taxpayer aid until Carpenter and GMAC's management assess the company's situation and can advise Treasury on the amount needed and what form it might take.

Earlier this month, the lender said it lost $767 million in the third quarter, as bad loans in its mortgage division, ResCap, weighed on its books. But its auto lending division posted a profit.

Treasury officials stressed that they had nothing to do with Molina's decision to step down. Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said the decision was "100 percent GMAC's."

De Molina was named GMAC's chief executive in 2008 by the private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which held an ownership stake in the lender at the time. He was recruited the year before as chief operating officer after spending 17 years at Bank of America.