Saturday, March 22, 2008

Citigroup announces layoff of 185 home equity sales workers


DES MOINES, Iowa: The home mortgage division of Citigroup Inc. said Monday it is laying off 185 employees who worked in its home equity business, saying those types of loans are not salable in today's troubled home loan market.
CitiMortgage spokesman Mark Rodgers said the layoffs in the Des Moines area follow the company's recent announcement that it plans to better allocate its capital.
"Supporting that goal, CitiMortgage recently announced it will reduce its overall balance sheet and the percentage of first mortgage originations held in portfolio by focusing more on salable product," he said in a statement. "Because home equity products are not salable in the current market, or likely to be in the foreseeable future, we are curtailing proactive marketing efforts that drive home equity loan volume."
He said the company is not exiting the home equity business but will focus more on supporting existing Citibank, corporate and Smith Barney customers.
Citigroup continues to employ about 180 people in its CitiMortgage business in Des Moines, about 650 workers in its credit card operations in the state and CitiFinancial has 120 workers in Iowa. About 200 workers are employed by Smith Barney in the state, he said.
Earlier this month Citigroup announced plans to reduce residential mortgage assets in the United States by about $45 billion (€28.54 billion) over the next year. That would be cutting by more than 50 percent the amount of new loans held in portfolio.

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