In what may be the largest staff reduction seen in the mortgage market yet, loanDepot will reportedly eliminate 4,800 positions by the end of this year. According to HousingWire, the company will go from 11,300 employees to 6,500 by the end of 2022, per a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The California-based lender is implementing cost-cutting efforts to to save between $375 million-$400 million annually. Those savings won’t just come from layoffs, though. loanDepot also plans on real estate consolidation, process optimizations and a reduction in marketing and third-party spending.
“In 2020 and 2021, like other mortgage companies, we scaled our organization to meet the demands of unprecedented mortgage volumes, especially refinancing transactions,” Frank Martell, president and CEO, said in a statement. “After two years of record-breaking volumes, the market has contracted sharply and abruptly in 2022. We are taking decisive action to meet this challenge head on.”
The company reported a net loss of $91.3 million in Q1 of this year, compared to a net income of $14.7 million from the previous quarter.
In 2021, loanDepot made $427.9 million in profit.