With Wells Fargo’s exit from the reverse mortgage market now complete, the banking giant has shed more than 100 jobs associated with former its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage servicing operations.
Wells Fargo eliminated 116 positions at its call center in Fort Mill, S.C. after formally handing off servicing operations to Champion Mortgage on September 1, the company confirmed in an e-mail to Reverse Mortgage Daily.
“The decision to reduce our workforce is made with great concern for our team members, who have each been an essential part of our success,” Wells Fargo spokesman Tom Goyda told RMD. “We are committed to retaining as many of them as we can.”
The San Francisco-based bank will attempt to find the affected workers other jobs in the company or provide career transition services, Goyda said.
The Charlotte Observer first reported the layoffs based on a notice filed with South Carolina officials.
The layoffs mark the end of the reverse mortgage road for Wells Fargo, once the largest player in the HECM marketplace with 26.2% market share in 2010. The bank exited the origination business in 2011, citing the unstable economy and unpredictable home prices, but held on to its existing servicing portfolio for several years afterward.
Champion agreed to take over the remaining 80,000 HECMs on Wells Fargo’s books last year, with the transition occurring as planned at the beginning of this month.
Beset by an enduring scandal over fake bank and credit-card accounts, Wells Fargo has embarked on a larger plan to reduce its workforce in recent months, the Observer noted: The bank is currently on a two-year plan to cut expenses by $9 billion, and had already laid off more than 2,000 employees earlier this year.
Written by Alex Spanko
