Capital One said Wednesday it has decided to close its GreenPoint Mortgage servicing center in Columbus, eliminating 220 jobs by the end of this year.
The employees were informed of the news at their 2300 Brookstone Centre Parkway office Wednesday, Capital One spokeswoman Julie Rakes said.
"No positions will be eliminated until the end of the year at the earliest. So they'll get a minimum of 60-days notice," said Rakes, noting the mortgage work is being outsourced to a third-party servicer.
"We realize that the impacts from this decision will be felt well beyond our organization, as associates and their families deal with the news," she said.
McLean, Va.-based Capital One has been exiting the mortgage business as the housing market foundered nationally over the past year. Instead, the company has been concentrating on its core credit-card issuing business.
About a year ago, Capital One announced it was shutting down 31 mortgage service centers in 19 states, plus slashing 1,900 jobs. But the Columbus operation, which employed 240 at the time, survived those cuts.
It isn't so lucky this time.
"As no new loans are being originated, the current portfolio serviced by the GreenPoint Mortgage servicing group continues to diminish," Rakes said. "Capital One explored a number of options for this work and determined that outsourcing it will enable the company to effectively and efficiently manage the operations as the portfolio continues to diminish."
The types of jobs being cut in Columbus include customer service, production support, collections, investor reporting, accounting, audit and information technology.
The affected employees will be given career transition help, Rakes said. That includes one-on-one counseling, career seminars, outplacement and retraining assistance. All full-time associates are eligible for severance packages, she said.
GreenPoint primarily serviced no-documentation and "Alternative A" mortgage loans aimed at prospective homeowners with better credit than subprime borrowers. It did not originate any loans.
GreenPoint has been in Columbus since March 1997 when the then-publicly traded company bought out the mortgage servicing operation of now defunct Citizens Financial Group Inc.
Capital One purchased GreenPoint in December 2006 as part of its acquisition of North Fork Bancorp.
The 14th-largest bank in the U.S. in terms of retail deposits, Capital One Financial Corp. oversees more than $92 billion in deposits. As of June 30, it managed $147 billion in loans.
E-Mail
Print
@Nyx.CommentBody@