Tuesday, January 08, 2008

National City Mortgage to lay off 900


National City Mortgage is shutting down its wholesale mortgage division, which will eliminate 900 positions, National City Corp. announced Wednesday.

Chris Kemper, spokesperson for National City, said the company stopped accepting wholesale loan originations Dec. 31, but will continue to proceed with its existing pipeline of business.

Kemper also said there were not any specifics on how many positions will be eliminated in the Dayton area, but the layoffs will not trigger a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification. Businesses anticipating the layoff of 50 or more people in a 30 day period are required to file a WARN notice with the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.

National City Mortgage will continue to originate mortgage loans directly to consumers through its retail and bank branches.

"We remain committed to the mortgage business, as the home mortgage is an essential consumer product," said Peter Raskind, chairman, president and chief executive officer of National City. "However, it is clear that the origination volumes will be lower going forward, and we are configuring our mortgage business to operate profitably in that environment."

The wholesale mortgage division was a broker-based part of the business, where brokers acts as intermediaries between National City Mortgage and the borrower. Kemper said that line of business was not directly to the consumer.

National City (NYSE: NCC) has cut a total of 2,500 positions from September to October 2007 with a majority being blamed on the mortgage crisis.

In August, the company announced it would be restructuring its mortgage banking business which resulted in merging its home equity unit into National City Mortgage and eliminating the origination of all nontraditional loans.

Miami Township-based National City Mortgage has 6,000 total employees. It had about 2,550 employees in the Dayton area as of 2006. Earlier in 2007, National City announced it would outsource certain functions of National City Mortgage in Miami Township, but declined to say how many employees would be affected.

Cleveland-based National City is the Dayton-area's second largest bank with $2.35 billion in local deposits and 531 employees.

E-mail kmaurer@bizjournals.com. Call 528-4427.


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