Lehman Brothers Closes BNC Mortgage

Lehman Brothers has made plans to shut down its BNC Mortgage LLC subsidiary in a move that affects about 1,200 employees in 23 U.S. locations.The Wall Street firm cited "market conditions have necessitated a substantial reduction in its resources and capacity in the subprime space" as the reason for the shutdown. Lehman will continue to originate mortgages in the U.S. through its Aurora Loan Services LLC platform. As a result of the BNC closure, the company will record related after-tax charges, including severance, real estate and technology costs, of approximately $25 million, and a 100% after-tax goodwill write-down of approximately $27 million. Lehman can be found on the Web at http://www.lehman.com.