Layoffs hit three more mortgage lenders

Another lender has confirmed that it will be terminating dozens of employees amid dwindling origination volume. 

North Carolina-based Wyndham Capital Mortgage will cut 48 staff at its main office in Charlotte effective Aug. 1, the company said in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification this week. Of the impacted workers, 38 are hybrid and 10 are fully-remote living outside of the Carolinas, an executive wrote in a letter to the state.

A representative for Wyndham didn’t respond to a request for comment Friday morning.

It’s the second Charlotte-based lender to announce a large layoff in the past two weeks, after Nashville-based FirstBank said it would shut down its direct-to-consumer channel Real Genius and close its office, impacting 74 home-based workers. The Real Genius employees will receive salary and benefits up to their July 15 termination, according to a WARN notice.

FirstBank attributed its move to the waning refinance market and high interest rate environment, a common refrain among mortgage players trimming payrolls. Origination activity hit a 22-year low last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Market Composite Index, while affordability for prospective homebuyers sits just above its all-time worst mark reached in 2006.

Other firms confirming cuts include Texas-based Open Mortgage, which acknowledged 14 layoffs, and American Advisors Group, the nation’s leading reverse mortgage lender by volume, which fired an undisclosed number of staff. The moves were reported by Reverse Mortgage Daily.

“After analyzing market trends, AAG has made some organizational changes,” an AAG spokesperson said in a statement. “These changes will ensure AAG will continue to operate at maximum efficiency while navigating the evolving bond market and interest rate environments.”

Lenders to technology providers alike have trimmed their workforces since the beginning of the year, although nonbank payrolls through April were higher than the same time last year. Some larger rounds of layoffs were announced after first quarter earnings reports, including Mr. Cooper’s termination of approximately 5% of its workforce in July and PennyMac’s reduction of 190 California-based workers in late June and early July.

Digital lender Better.com has suffered the industry’s most prominent and drastic cuts, shedding over a third of its staff since December. The company in a new whistleblower lawsuit is also accused of failing to file a WARN notice in California for its fateful Zoom firing of 900 employees in December.