|
|||
| New Century Financial Corp. has laid off approximately 5 percent of its total workforce to reduce costs amid the current “turbulent” nonprime mortgage market environment.
About 300 employees received the news yesterday that their jobs were eliminated, according to a New Century e-mail statement to MortgageDaily.com. “The entire non-prime mortgage market has entered a down cycle,” the Irvine, Calif.-based lender stated. “The turbulent environment that we’re currently facing has caused us to carefully examine all alternatives that improve productivity while reducing costs. Regrettably, layoffs are one such alternative.” The layoffs affected mostly corporate and production employees, with 90 of the 300 being corporate positions and 124 of the total consisting of workers in Orange County, Calif., the statement said. In total, New Century has approximately 6,400 employees. “Being a low cost originator is essential to managing through the current environment, and we continue to be intensely focused on reducing costs,” the nonprime lender added in the e-mail statement. Thursday’s job cuts follow New Century’s announcement that the financial statements it will restate are expected to show reduced earnings related to loan repurchase losses. Lawsuits seeking class action status have reportedly been filed against the lender, accusing it of violating federal securities laws by failing to disclose the company was repurchasing substantially more loans than originally had been expected and failing to properly account for them. The latest was announced Thursday by the New York law firm of Dreier LLP. Between last December and the beginning of January, reportedly 200 employees of New Century subsidiary Home 123 Corp. were laid off through the closure of 24 branches. |
|||
back to current headlines
