HSBC Shuts B&C Wholesale Unit

British bank HSBC Holdings pulled the plug Friday on Decision One Mortgage, its subprime wholesale division, and will incur various charges of almost $1 billion by closing the unit and a related business.By exiting the subprime wholesale channel, 750 Decision One employees -- housed mostly in Charlotte, N.C.; Fort Mill, S.C.; and Phoenix -- will lose their jobs. Among B&C wholesalers, Decision One ranked 12th, according to the Quarterly Data Report. In March the bank exited the subprime correspondent channel. In 2003, HSBC paid $14 billion for Household Finance, a publicly traded subprime lender that included Decision One. Over the past year HSBC has whittled down what's left of Household. It has vowed to remain a subprime retail lender and will maintain the Beneficial and HFC retail brand names. A spokeswoman said HSBC Mortgage Corp., Depew, N.Y., is not affected by the decision to close Decision One. HSBC Mortgage continues to fund mostly conventional loans through three channels: retail, wholesale, and correspondent. Decision One can be found online at https://www.d1online.com.