It has more than 145 million customers in the US
Santander Bank LLC, a Spain-based global banking group with more than 145 million customers in the US, will have laid off more than 50 employees by the first week of April, according to a state regulatory filing.
The company, a subsidiary of Madrid, Spain-based Banco Santa Santander, notified state officials in Philadelphia of its plans to lay off 53 of its employees by April 08. The layoffs are expected to be permanent, according to the notice filed in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (WARN) filed with the Philadelphia Department of Labor and Industry.
Companies are compelled to report substantive layoffs in compliance with the WARN Act. The move comes as Santander has opted to stop its mortgage origination business, according to multiple media reports.
The cuts also come at a time when the mortgage industry is bracing for furloughs as the refinancing boom comes to an end in light of rising interest rates.
The company is one of several that have disclosed job cuts in the wake of higher interest rates. The online real estate marketplace company Zillow Group Inc. continues to lay off workers after the failure of its Zillow Offers home-flipping product, with 55 additional job cuts expected by April. In correspondence to state officials, the company wrote of plans to cut 19 jobs in Tampa, Fla., by April 18, and 36 more in Centennial, Colo., by March 21.
The company revealed the layoffs in separate correspondence to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The firm disclosed the imminent layoffs in compliance of the WARN Act.
California-based Winnpointe Corp., doing business as Interactive Mortgage, plans to lay off more than 50 employees by April, according to a WARN notice filed in its home state. The company this month notified the Employment Development Department of the imminent layoff of 51 workers in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
Read more: Zillow makes more job cuts
All told, Zillow’s job cuts total 94 from the beginning of the year in those two states alone, according to the WARN notices. Emily Merritt, manager of people operations for Zillow, explained to Colorado officials that the cuts were the result of the company’s failed Zillow Offers product targeting potential home sellers requesting a cash offer from Zillow to purchase their home.
Highly touted and expansion-driven, the business model failed to ignite with consumers. The company, on Feb. 10, released its fourth quarter and full-year financial results, reporting an $881 million loss in 2021 attributable to the algorithm-driven Zillow Offers business it shut down last fall to stem further losses. In shutting down that business, Zillow announced a 25% cut to its workforce that will be implemented incrementally over several quarters.
Read next: California mortgage firm lays off more than 50 workers
Texas-based Stearns Lending LLC alerted officials of plans to lay off 348 employees by the end of January in a move prompted by the closure of its wholesale channel after its acquisition by Guaranteed Rate, one of the nation’s largest retail mortgage lenders. In a January 05, 2021, Press release, the acquiring firm described Stearns as a “…national top 25 lender with more than $20 billion in origination volume in 2020. All told, the four companies – Zillow Offers, Interactive Mortgage, Stearns Lending and Santander – collectively have cut 546 jobs since the beginning of the year. And late last year, Better.com unceremoniously cut 900 jobs during an infamous Zoom conference. In addition, Home Point Capital laid off nearly 10% of its workforce.
