First Data's loan orders top $7 bln - source

NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - First Data Corp FDC.N has received more than $7 billion in orders for its $5 billion leveraged buyout loan, the largest such deal to tap the U.S. market since this summer's credit squeeze, a source close to the financing said on Thursday.

The widely watched loan, the first piece of a planned $24 billion debt financing, will help pay for First Data's leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts [KKR.UL].

"There is $7 billion to $8 billion in the (order) book," a banker close to the deal told Reuters Loan Pricing Corp. (Additional reporting by Tessa Walsh of Reuters Loan Pricing Corp)