CAT CEO says finance arm not affected by U.S. "mess"

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - The top executive at Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) said on Monday that his company's in-house finance arm, which lends money to buyers of its construction and mining equipment, had not been affected by the turmoil has roiled the credit markets and convulsed Wall Street.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters at the MINExpo trade show here, Jim Owens, Caterpillar's chair and chief executive, said that while "last week, for a day or two, all markets for medium-term notes were closed to anybody," Caterpillar's finance arm was finding plenty of buyers for its paper.

"We have been very successful in having our stuff oversubscribed basically because we're transparent, we're pretty solid, old-fashioned lenders, loaning to people we know, getting a down payment, knowing how to remarket.

"But having our own captive finance company in these kinds of times is a terrific advantage."

Owens called the current crisis "a mess" caused by lax regulation and said the policy response was a "necessary evil" required to protect the markets from more damage.

"I think if they didn't take very assertive action we would end up with a seizure, if you will, in global credit markets … and that would be highly disruptive to the global economy."

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher)