Bear Cuts More Encore Credit Jobs

Bear Stearns & Co. recently laid off 100 account executives working at its subprime wholesale division in Irvine, Calif., according to industry sources.The layoffs affect employees of Encore Credit Corp., a nonprime wholesaler that Bear took over earlier this year and recently folded into its Wall Street-managed mortgage group. "They have about 50,000 square feet of office space in Irvine," said one mortgage executive, "but they don't have too many people left." The AE job cuts were among 650 positions that Bear terminated the week of Nov. 25. A Bear spokeswoman declined to provide any breakdown on the job cuts.