Citibank Defends Further Staffing Reductions At Citimortgage.
Citibank has cut staffing levels at Citimortgage for the third time in 9 months. Citi claims letting go of the 100 employees was to “streamline internal functions.”
However, it probably has more to do with surging rates and a reorganization of its operations.
Citibank claims it is working to support employees affected by the downsizing. The company is helping them to find new employment opportunities within Citi or outside the firm.
Inside Mortgage Finance says Citimortgage was the 19th-largest residential mortgage lender in America in January.
The bank funded $16 billion in residential mortgages from January to June of this year. Citimortgage’s originations decreased by 5.9% compared to the same period in 2021.
The staff reduction follows new leadership at its mortgage business. In August 2021, Citi hired Liz Bryant as head of retail mortgage sales from Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo was the largest depositary bank by origination volume in the US. That was until Wells Fargo announced it was shutting down it’s lending operations last month.
Bryant’s first task was reorganizing Citi Mortgage to better align with Citi’s retail banking division.
The bank’s latest move was the hiring of industry veteran Darin Lugat. Lugat was hired to be the new division lending executive for New York and New Jersey in July. Lugat spent eight years as a market manager for Wells Fargo before joining Citimortgage.
Citibank is the latest bank/lender to reduce mortgage staffing levels. The once dominant Wells Fargo is pulling out of lending completely by October. The bank has filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices with the state of Iowa’s Workforce Development. The bank eliminated 197 mortgage jobs in Iowa across earlier layoffs. JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bank have also shed an undisclosed number of jobs in their mortgage divisions.
