The lender had already agreed to sell its North Americanservicing and mortgage business to a JV of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.and Leucadia National Corp. KKR & Co., Goldman Sachs CapitalPartners and Five Mile Capital Partners created Capmark after theypurchased the commercial real estate business from GMAC, LLC.

"The Chapter 11 process will give Capmark the opportunity torestructure our balance sheet while continuing to focus onmaximizing value for our principal stakeholders," says MohsinMeghji, chief restructuring officer of Capmark, in a statement."Over the past months, Capmark has engaged in extensive andconstructive negotiations with our primary creditor constituenciesto reach agreement on a plan of restructuring. We expect tocomplete this effort over the coming months."

Capmark has struggled with a continually rising default rate.Capmark Bank, the recent recipient of $600 million of new equityfrom Capmark will not be part of the bankruptcy filing.