Pennymac plans to lay off another 207 employees

California-based non-bank mortgage lender Pennymac Financial Services will lay off an additional 207 staff in June and July following a request to cut more than 230 staff in March.

According to the Worker Accommodation and Retraining Notices (WARN) submitted to the Employment Development Department (EDD) on April 28 and May 9, the company plans to cut 207 jobs in two rounds on June 27 and July 8, in letters to EDD reviewed by HousingWire.

Bumping rights do not exist for these positions and employees are not represented by a union, according to WARN notices filed by the firm. The layoffs of 190 employees at Pennymac were first reported by National Mortgage News. However, Pennymac confirmed that 207 employees will be permanently laid off in June and July, without providing details on the downsizing.

Pink slips will arrive for California employees at six offices in Thousand Oaks, Pasadena, Roseville, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills and Moorpark. The latest round of WARN notices will impact 59 loan officers in offices in Thousand Oaks, Pasadena and Roseville.

The Thousand Oaks office accounted for the largest layoff notifications — of 97 employees, including 25 loan officers. Most of the other positions to be eliminated were analysts and back office operations managers. Leadership positions, such as vice presidents for underwriting and managing partial credit guarantee (PCG) transactions, will also be cut, according to Stacy Diaz, executive vice president of human resources at PennyMac, in letters to ESD.

In the Moorpark office, the company will cut 52 positions, including 14 loan officers. This site will also drop its vice president for maintenance.

Other layoffs include 35 at the Pasadena site, including 21 loan officers, 16 in Roseville, where 13 are loan officers, and 25 loan officers in Westlake Village. Pink slips will also arrive for two Agoura Hills employees.

In March, Pennymac filed WARN notices with EDD in California detailing layoff plans for 236 employees. A total of 96 positions were cut at two offices in Westlake Village, where most of those affected were home loan specialists. The Roseville office laid off 81 positions, while Pasadena lost 24, Agoura Hills lost 19 and Moorpark lost 16.

Pennymac reported pretax profit of $234.5 million in the first quarter of this year, driven by its services portfolio and about $520 billion in outstanding principal balance.

At the start of the year, Pennymac said it aimed to boost its direct-to-consumer lending business. The company announced it is investing $3.9 million to open a new mortgage origination center in Franklin, Tenn., in January to improve Pennymac’s operations coast-to-coast.” while supporting the organization’s overall growth initiative,” said Doug Jones, President and Chief Mortgage Banking Officer. officer at Pennymac.

Among its multi-channel production businesses, Pennymac’s direct-to-consumer market grew from 1.6% to 1.7% this year, according to Jones. During the first quarter earnings call with analysts, Jones said he expects the company to grow market share in this channel by leveraging the “service portfolio, new technologies and advanced data analysis capabilities”.

The corresponding channel had the largest market share in all of Pennymac’s businesses at 15.8% in the first quarter. Loan servicing followed at 4.1% and the direct broker channel followed at 2.2%.

Mortgage lenders are rushing to cut costs amid soaring mortgage rates and sharp declines in mortgage refis and lending. Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. is the latest lender to lay off staff across the country. Although Fairway did not provide comment, a dozen former employees told HousingWire they were fired by phone calls from their supervisors in the second week of May.

Other lenders, including Owner company, Performer, Mr. Cooperand Wells Fargohave also resorted to layoffs while some companies, such as Rocketoffered a voluntary buyout to some of their staff.