New American Funding has laid off hundreds of employees across multiple rounds of workforce reductions this year, multiple former employees told HousingWire.
The most recent layoff came on Tuesday when the California-based lender eliminated several hundred positions, including loan officers, mortgage underwriters, processors and training specialists, multiple former employees said. The firm had 4,800 employees as of July 2021, and hired more than 1,190 workers in the first seven months of last year, New American said in a release at the time.
No Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices were submitted to California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) and New American Funding did not respond to requests for comment.
Founded in 2003 by Rick Arvielo and his wife Patty Arvielo, New American Funding offers a variety of conventional, government, adjustable-rate and non-qualified mortgages. Licensed in 49 states across the nation, the lender has 159 active branches nationwide and originated $31.8 billion in mortgages in 2021.
In June of last year, New American Funding announced plans to expand its footprint across much of the country by hiring LOs and other sales staff. But, as is the case for virtually all mortgage lenders, origination volume began to drop as mortgage rates climbed.
According to data from Inside Mortgage Finance, New American Funding originated $9.1 billion in the first six months of 2022, down 42.7% from the first six months of 2021.
“In 2021 I was reviewing about 50 to 100 loans a day,” said a former disclosure specialist who was laid off in 2022. “Early this year I began to review around 30 to 50 and that continued to decline.”
Multiple rounds of layoffs happened in the early part of 2022, former employees said. A mass layoff of around 500 employees came in February, ahead of the Fed’s first rate hike in March, according to two ex-employees who spoke to HousingWire on the condition of anonymity.
“Since the mortgage business has slowed down, we’re doing a reduction in force is what they [human resources] told me,” said an employee who was notified of her layoff on Tuesday morning. Employment termination was effective Aug. 2 and no severance payment was offered, according to a separation document reviewed by HousingWire.
With less origination volume, the lender put stricter payout standards for positions including senior processors in the beginning of the year, former employees said.
“We were paid out on every file we did last year,” a former employee said. “Earlier this year, around March or April, they cut that back saying we couldn’t get paid out on anything unless we closed over 11 loans a month. Last year when it was busier we were able to close 20 to 30 no problem but with the economy as it is, it was a struggle to hit 10.”
Privately held New American Funding is hardly the only mortgage lender to make sizable cuts to its workforce this year.
loanDepot, a top-10 lender, plans to eliminate 4,800 jobs, about 40% of its workforce, to return to profitability. Digital mortgage lender Better.com laid off more than 4,000 employees since December. Even Rocket Mortgage, easily the country’s largest lender, offered voluntary buyouts to 2,000 workers earlier this year.
With a plummet in mortgage origination volume, lenders including Pennymac, Mr. Cooper, Guaranteed Rate and Fairway Independent Mortgage conducted at least one round of reduction in force and First Guaranty Mortgage Corp (FGMC) filed for bankruptcy in June after laying off nearly 80% of its workforce in a virtual meeting.