Some employees of Accredited Home Lenders Inc. are telling mortgage brokers that the company has shut down. But a company spokesman said that is not the case.
“I regret to inform you that our parent company, Lone Star, has decided to close the doors of Accredited,” a California account executive wrote to her customers in an e-mail message today.
But Ed Trissel, a spokesman for the San Diego-based company, told MortgageDaily.com that is not true.
“Accredited is absolutely not shutting down,” he said in a brief interview. “It’s still doing retail business. It’s still doing wholesale business. It just made operational changes.”
However, Accredited, which reported 1,000 remaining employees following a dramatic downsizing on Sept. 5, 2007, is restructuring, he noted. But he did not elaborate on how many employees will be impacted by today’s actions.
“I can confirm that today Accredited Home Lenders Inc. informed our employees of a restructure of our workforce,” Trissel said in a written statement. “The restructure was done in order to maintain Accredited’s financial position in the marketplace and improve the company’s long-term prospects by realizing efficiencies.”
One Accredited customer indicated a notice was sent out that the lender was closing all operations centers except for one in San Diego.
The company is one of the few subprime lenders still standing. It was acquired by Lone Star Fund V L.P. in October 2007 after Accredited sued the investment fund to force the merger.
“The company does not intend to comment further on this matter,” Trissel said in today’s statement.
