As Bank of America cuts mortgage jobs on the West Coast, another 280 mortgage employees in St. Louis get their walking papers
Bank of America has slashed still more mortgage jobs, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.
The lender laid off about 280 mortgage employees in the St. Louis area this week, the Post-Dispatch reported. The bank is closing a department that oversaw mortgage operations, and only about 90 employees are left in its St. Charles, Mo., office, the Post-Dispatch reported.
A Bank of America spokeswoman told the Post-Dispatch that the layoffs were forced by a decrease in servicing business.
“The number of delinquent mortgage loans we service has decreased to less than one-third of the peak levels,” Jumana Bauwens wrote in an email to the Post-Dispatch. “As we continue to resolve the needs of customers with delinquent loans, we are reducing the size of the operations that support these specialized programs. Additionally, in line with the industry, we are realigning our cost structure in response to lower customer demand for mortgage refinancing.”
Read more: What is the average cost of refinancing a mortgage?
Bank of America is also cutting 450 jobs in offices along the West Coast and closing one Pasadena, Calif., office entirely, according to a Bloomberg report.
Bank of America has slashed positions several times over the last year. The lender’s retail originations dropped 49% to $11.6bn in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to Bloomberg.
Bank of America isn’t alone in slashing mortgage jobs. Other lenders, including Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, have cut thousands of positions in their mortgage units in the last 12 months as the refi boom evaporated. Bank of America itself cut about 3,000 mortgage employees in the last quarter of 2013.
