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2 more lenders to cut jobs at Tampa offices

H&R Block Mortgage and First NLC will close local facilities.

By Scott Barancik, Times Staff Writer
Published March 31, 2007

Two more home-loan companies announced plans this week to lay off Tampa staff, pushing the troubled industry's projected local job cuts past 500.

H&R Block Mortgage said it will close its Tampa facility and lay off all 141 workers there by June 2, including 76 loan officers. Parent company H&R Block of Kansas City, Mo., said its subsidiary would no longer originate any mortgage loans, whether prime or subprime.

Another lender, First NLC Financial Services, said it will close its Tampa regional office and lay off 92 workers there by May 31 as part of a companywide consolidation. Earlier this month, parent company Friedman Billings Ramsey Group Inc. of Arlington, Va., had vowed to "explore strategic alternatives to maximize the value" of the unit.

News of the impending closures came just two weeks after Fremont Investment & Loan announced it would shutter its two Tampa offices, lay off 301 workers there by May 18 and seek a buyer. All told, the three companies will eliminate 534 Tampa jobs over the next two months. Consider it mounting evidence of woes within the subprime mortgage industry, which is suffering from sluggish home sales, higher-than-projected foreclosure rates and a crowded bazaar of anxious peers looking to be acquired.

Some Fremont workers are being burned twice: once by layoffs, and again by the plunging value of their 401k retirement accounts.

The stock of Santa Monica, Calif., parent company Fremont General Corp. closed Friday at $6.93 per share, down 57 percent so far this year.

At least one Florida lender is trying to spin its competitors' woes into gold. In letters to Fremont customers, Advantage One Mortgage Corp. warns that Fremont's problems "could affect how or to whom you make your payments."

"As (Fremont's) value is tumbling," Advantage writes, "the future seems quite uncertain."

Scott Barancik can be reached at barancik@sptimes.comor (727) 893-8751.

BY THE NUMBERS

141 Jobs to be lost by June 2 when H&R Block closes its H&R Block Mortgage facility in Tampa.

92 Jobs to be lost when First NLC Financial Services closes its Tampa regional office by May 31.

301 Jobs to be lost when Fremont Investment & Loan closes two Tampa offices by May 18.

[Last modified April 17, 2007, 11:59:35]