In Brief: Citigroup Unit to Buy Associates First Offices

Associates First Capital Corp. said Monday that it would sell 128 of its U.S. consumer finance branches to Commercial Credit Inc., a Baltimore-based unit of Citigroup.

Terms were not disclosed. Associates, the largest consumer finance company in the United States, bought the branches in its recent purchase of Avco Financial Corp. from Textron Inc. for $3.9 billion. In January, Associates said it would slash 400 jobs from Avco's work force, mostly in its headquarters.

Commercial Credit is one of the few success stories in financial services cross-selling, having used the door-to-door agents of another Citigroup unit, Primerica Financial Services, to sell its products.