Barclays unit EquiFirst to cut subprime jobs
NEW YORK (Reuters) - EquiFirst Corp., a subprime mortgage unit of British bank Barclays Plc (BARC.L), on Tuesday said it will cut an unspecified of number of jobs to cope with the U.S. housing slump.
"EquiFirst made this decision in response to a contraction in the industry," EquiFirst spokeswoman Jennifer Sharpe said in an interview. "This move will help to ensure EquiFirst has a viable future in the mortgage lending business."
The cuts were announced less than five months after Barclays acquired EquiFirst from Birmingham, Alabama's Regions Financial Corp (RF.N) for $76 million. That price was one-third the original $225 million price agreed to in January, ahead of much of the deterioration in the U.S. mortgage market.
EquiFirst, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, employed about 1,400 people before the latest cuts.
Subprime lenders make loans to people with weaker credit histories. Sharpe said "Barclays is not exiting the nonprime business in the Americas. It is very supportive of Equifirst and its management team."
Dozens of U.S. mortgage lenders have tightened underwriting standards, cut jobs, or quit the industry this year as delinquencies and defaults rose, and tight capital markets made it more difficult to obtain operating cash.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel)
