Icon Residential, Irvine, Calif., recently pulled the plug on its plans to enter the correspondent lending channel, laying off roughly 120 full-time employees at the unit and a related division.
Toni Farrow, chief administrative officer for Icon, told National Mortgage News that the lender's correspondent effort was shuttered before it even got off the ground.
Icon began laying the groundwork to enter the correspondent channel late last year and began staffing up.
Farrow did not give a reason for the shutdown, but pointed to Bank of America's decision to sell its correspondent unit as a sign of the times. “It appears to be a trend,” she said.
The layoffs occurred about two weeks ago.
Farrow noted that although 120 workers were let go, Icon is hiring on the West Coast and has 30 open positions.
