The chief executive of GMAC, the troubled lender which was handed $12.5 billion in government bailouts by the US government, has resigned abruptly.

The beleaguered financial services company confirmed that Alvaro de Molina, chief executive since April 2008, was leaving. He was formerly chief financial officer at Bank of America, and news reports recently have mentioned him as a possible candidate to be chief executive there.

Mr Molina will be replaced by Michael Carpenter, 62, who has previously held chief executive positions at Citigroup's Global Corporate & Investment Bank and Salomon Smith Barney.

Mr Carpenter has resigned from the board of CIT Group, which is reorganising in bankruptcy, to focus on GMAC, the company said in a statement.

GMAC was created to provide financing to car dealers and buyers and was owned by GM for years. In 2006 GM sold a controlling stake to the private equity firm Cerberus. Mr Molina arrived from Bank of America a year later as chief operating officer.

Last year's collapse of the US housing and car markets devastated almost every part of GMAC’s business, leaving the company in need of bail out money to survive. The company is now 35 per cent owned by the US Treasury with Cerberus, GM and other investors holding minority stakes.

When President Obama’s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, cut pay and bonuses at seven companies getting extraordinary government support, the biggest single reduction was at GMAC, where 22 executives saw their remuneration cut by $413 million from 2008 levels.

Earlier this year, a government “stress test” said that GMAC company needed to raise about $11.5 billion of new capital.

Christopher Dodd, chairman of the US Senate Banking Committee, said earlier this month that GMAC would receive between $2 billion and $5 billion of taxpayer capital beyond what it has already received.

However, in a statement, GMAC said it was is also asking the federal government to postpone its decision on extending any additional taxpayer aid until Mr Carpenter and the company's management address the amount needed.

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