CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- GMAC Financial Services, the troubled lender applying to become a bank holding company, is negotiating for office space in Ballantyne for a possible move of its headquarters to Charlotte, a source familiar with the situation said today.

If the company receives government approval to become a bank holding company, GMAC will need compliance, finance and other staff that is likely to become available due to expected job cuts at Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp., which is being acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. The plan isn't definite but could bring several hundred jobs to Charlotte by early next year, the source said.

A GMAC spokeswoman declined comment.

Today, GMAC, which is partly owned by automaker General Motors Corp., said it had submitted an application to the Federal Reserve to become a bank holding company. It also said it applied to the U.S. Treasury for a capital injection under a federal program designed to stabilize the banking industry. GMAC needs holding company status to get the money.

GMAC, which is majority-owned by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, provides auto loans, real estate financing and insurance. The company has been battered in the credit crunch, suffering major losses in its Residential Capital mortgage unit, once a big subprime lender. GMAC this month reported a third-quarter loss of $2.5 billion, largely because of ResCap.

GMAC is headquartered in Detroit, although many of its executives work from New York, and it has other operations spread around the country. In Charlotte, the company already has about 200 employees in a call center and in other operations such as marketing. GMAC chief executive Al de Molina is the former chief financial officer of Bank of America Corp. and kept his home here.

In September, the company said it had about 1,250 employees in North Carolina, including a large presence in Winston-Salem.

GMAC today also announced a move to exchange and offer cash for about $38 billion in outstanding GMAC and ResCap debt. The company said the move, related to its bank holding company application, is designed to improve the company's capital levels and to decrease its outstanding debt.

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