NEW YORK – GMAC Inc., the U.S.-controlled auto and home lender, is close to naming a chief financial officer and has considered appointing Barbara Yastine, the former CFO for investment banking at Credit Suisse Group AG and Citigroup Inc., three people with knowledge of the search told Bloomberg.

Yastine, 50, is a top prospect because she’s worked before at Citigroup with Michael Carpenter, GMAC’s new CEO, said the people. They declined to be identified because the search is confidential. Detroit-based GMAC is looking for someone to replace James Mackey, the interim CFO since Robert Hull left in March for a private-equity firm.

The process was still winding down as of early this week, according to one person. Gina Proia, a GMAC spokeswoman, declined to comment, and efforts to reach Yastine weren’t successful.

The new finance chief will help Carpenter devise an exit from government bailout programs, which funneled more than $17 billion to the lender and gave the U.S. a 56 percent stake. Carpenter reported the company’s first operating profit since 2007 earlier this week, following an annual loss last year that exceeded $10 billion.

Yastine has been a consultant to Southgate Alternative Investments, the investment firm founded by Carpenter, 63, according to the firm’s Web site. She served as CFO of New York- based Citigroup’s investment bank from 2000 to 2002 when Carpenter ran the business and later was finance chief from 2002 to 2004 at Credit Suisse’s investment bank, the Web site said.

Hull left at the end of March to join Providence Equity Partners, the Rhode Island-based investment firm. He joined GMAC in 2007 from Bank of America Corp., the former employer of Al de Molina, who was replaced by Carpenter as CEO in November.

Yastine attended New York University, where she received an undergraduate degree in journalism and a master’s degree in business administration, according to a 2002 Credit Suisse statement.

Carpenter said during a May 3 conference call that he’d be meeting this week with regulators about how to pay back the U.S., using a combination of tactics that may include an initial public offering. The Congressional Oversight Panel said in March the Treasury should require GMAC “to lay out a clear path to viability or a strategy for fully repaying taxpayers.”

Next week GMAC is changing its corporate name to Ally Financial Inc., but its auto unit will continue to do business under the GMAC name.

Spyker Cars N.V., which recently bought Saab Automobile from General Motors Co., has chosen GMAC Financial Services as the preferred lender for its 500 Saab dealers in North America and globally, Automotive News reported.

GMAC’s preferred lender agreement with Spyker takes effect immediately and calls for GMAC to supply dealers with inventory financing and retail auto loans. Auto leasing is excluded from the arrangement, though GMAC is considering offering leases in some markets, GMAC spokesman Tony Sapienza said.

GMAC already provided retail financing through all the Saab dealers and has provided inventory financing to a majority of them, Sapienza said. The dealers can continue to operate under their existing lending agreements with GMAC, he said.

“We’ve had a long-term relationship with these dealers when they were a part of GM,” Sapienza said. “It’s an easy transition.”

General Motors Co. won’t try to regain control of former finance arm GMAC Financial Services, an idea the automaker had considered as a way to bolster sales and make itself more attractive to potential investors, two people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this month, the Congressional Oversight Panel suggested breaking apart GMAC, which is surviving on $17 billion in federal funding, and returning control of its auto-lending business to GM. The panel said GMAC has failed to establish a viable business plan to repay taxpayer dollars.

The idea appealed to GM, in part because auto maker would have more control over lending practices. GMAC’s move in 2008 to dramatically restrict leasing amid the U.S. financial crisis helped trigger the spiral that sent GM into bankruptcy the last year.

GM over the last two years suffered more severe sales declines in the U.S. than Detroit rival Ford Motor Co. and continues to offer only a limited number of leases. Late last year, roughly 2% of GM’s sales were through leases, down from a more typical 20%.

Having control of GMAC’s auto business also could make GM more attractive on Wall Street as the company seeks to launch an initial public offering as soon as this year. Ford, Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. all have so-called captive auto lenders. In that regard, GMAC could be considered a key strategic advantage.

But taking over GMAC would have many complications. GM sold a majority stake in GMAC in 2006 as a way to buck up the auto maker’s credit standing and its access to capital. As it turned out, GM still remains largely cut off from the markets.

Meantime, GMAC is wrestling with its own complicated restructuring. The lender continues to struggle with deep losses at its mortgage arm, which lost $8.3 billion last year. A key part of the aid GMAC got from the U.S. was the ability to turn itself into a bank-holding company.

The company is using new access to low-cost capital and growth of its Ally bank to compete more directly with banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wachovia Corp.

GMAC a year ago took over for Chrysler Financial as the preferred lender for Chrysler Group LLC, now controlled by Italian car maker Fiat SpA. GMAC is looking to win business other auto makers and recently agreed to work with Saab, recently split from GM.

GMAC Financial Services this week is raising nearly $1 billion selling retail auto loans as securities, Automotive News reported.

The sale is one of a series of transactions indicating that GMAC has improved its access to capital in the past six months after having to rely on repeated cash infusions from the U.S. Treasury Department to stay afloat during the credit crisis.

Treasury owns 56 percent of GMAC after investing $17.2 billion in the company.

When the latest transaction is complete, GMAC will have raised $7.1 billion since September through the sale of securities and bonds.

This week’s sale represents the first time that GMAC unit Ally Bank has sold securities outside of a government-sponsored program. Ally Bank’s previous three transactions in September, November and February used a federal program designed to free up credit markets by providing financial aid to investors.

Last week, GMAC raised $1.5 billion through a bond issue — the second this year. And in February, GMAC raised $2 billion through a bond issue, the first time the lender was able to access the capital markets since May 2007.

GMAC CEO Michael Carpenter said the bond issue was a major step toward profitability. Several recent ratings upgrades have lowered GMAC’s cost of capital, he explained in an interview after the February transaction.

Said Carpenter: “Over time, the cost savings is very substantial. …On a more than $150 billion balance sheet, some large percentage is financed by debt. You get to some big numbers quickly.”

Carpenter said GMAC would seek new partnerships with automakers beyond General Motors and Chrysler once its access to capital improves.

GMAC just entered an agreement with Spyker Cars N.V. to provide retail and inventory financing to Saab’s global network of 500 dealers. Spyker recently bought Saab Automobile from GM, and the arrangement continues the lending relationships most of the dealers had with GMAC when GM owned Saab.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration’s pay czar is limiting 2010 compensation for top executives at GMAC because the auto-finance giant continues to lose money and can’t yet repay its $16.3-billion taxpayer bailout, people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

Only one of the top 25 earners at GMAC will earn more than $500,000 in cash, and CEO Michael Carpenter will receive only stock compensation, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks.

The agreements follow months of wrangling with Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury Department’s special master for executive compensation. They reflect his concern that GMAC has no plan to return to profitability.

Feinberg is expected next week to announce 2010 pay packages for the top 25 earners at companies that continue to rely on “extraordinary assistance” from the government, including GMAC, American International Group, General Motors and Chrysler.

Last year, Feinberg allowed two GMAC executives to exceed the $500,000 cash cap, and granted Carpenter an annual pay package worth $9.5 million. After becoming CEO in November, Carpenter earned about $1.2 million, including about $120,000 cash, for six weeks’ work.

GMAC Inc., which lost $10.4 billion last year, will pay its chief executive $9 million in all-stock compensation this year and limit the pay of its top 25 executives to no more than $500,000 in cash, The Detroit News reported.

GMAC CEO Michael Carpenter will not able to cash in the $9 million in stock until the company repays its government loans.

GMAC has received $17.2 billion in government support and the U.S. Treasury owns a 56 percent stake in the company.

Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury Department’s special master for compensation, has been working to approve the pay packages for the top 25 executives at companies that have received exceptional government assistance: GMAC, General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC, Chrysler Financial LLC and AIG Corp.

Meg Reilly, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, said Feinberg “worked with (GMAC) to determine a pay package that strikes the right balance between the need to protect taxpayer investments and reward performance.”

Carpenter, a GMAC board member, became CEO in November, and earned $802,000 in 2009 with $119,000 in cash.

Feinberg last month approved a $9 million compensation package for GM CEO Edward Whitacre Jr.

GMAC saw some pay proposals rejected by Feinberg in 2009.

GMAC’s salaries fell by 50 percent, and total compensation by 86 percent. At GMAC, 85 percent of compensation was in stock and 15 percent in cash for the top 25 executives last year.

Just two of the top 25 made more than $500,000 in cash in 2009, a spokeswoman told The Detroit News.