GMAC Makes it Official: It Wants to be a BHC

General Motors Acceptance Corp. -- which controls almost $400 billion in residential servicing rights -- made it official on Thursday, declaring that it's in talks with regulators to become a bank holding company. In a statement GMAC said that as a bank holding company it would have "expanded opportunities for funding and for access to capital." A spokeswoman for the company declined to elaborate. The BHC move comes at a precarious time for the company: its residential lending/servicing arm, Residential Capital Corp., continues to lose money, has slashed its work force (including its broker/wholesale channel), and one of its owners, General Motors, has been in merger talks with Chrysler. GMAC is 51% owned by hedge fund giant Cerberus, and 49% by the automaker. Rumors about GMAC filing to become a BHC have been floating around all week. ResCap already owns a depository, GMAC Bank of Utah. As a BHC, GMAC, in theory, would have been able to apply for capital assistance under the new Troubled Asset Relief Program.