Irvine-based Banc of California plans to cut its headcount almost in half with the sale of its home loan division to Caliber Home Loans Inc.
The number of employees will fall to less than 950 from more than 1,800, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We expect most of these employees will be retained by Caliber,” spokesman Joe Hixson said.
The bank will sell assets related to “the business of originating, processing, underwriting, funding and selling residential mortgage loans,” the filing said.
The bank also is selling to Irving, Texas-based Caliber the mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) on approximately $3.8 billion in unpaid balances of conventional agency mortgages, the filing said.
“The sale of the mortgage business will align Banc of California’s business profile with that of a more traditional spread-based lender by significantly reducing the bank’s reliance on mortgage banking gain on sale revenue, lowering the risk of MSR valuation changes impacting earnings, streamlining the Bank’s operations, and allowing the Bank to redeploy capital to our commercial banking business,” Hugh Boyle, Interim Chief Executive, said in an emailed statement.
