Citi shrinks U.S. mortgage broker business

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (C.N) will cut 500 mortgage-related jobs and slash by 90 percent the number of independent mortgage brokers it works with, the company said, as the U.S. mortgage industry broadly shrinks amid the housing crisis.

Citigroup will cut the number of independent brokers it does business with to 1,000 from about 9,500, company spokesman Mark Rodgers said Wednesday.

The job cuts, mostly in sales and support, represent about 5 percent of the company's mortgage staff across the United States.

The remaining operations in the wholesale mortgage business -- one of several ways Citigroup generates new loans -- will be based in St. Louis and Dallas.

(Reporting by Dan Wilchins in New York; additional reporting by Savio D'Souza in Bangalore; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)