Community Bankshares Inc. in Orangeburg, S.C., said Friday that its Community Resource Bank is shuttering its wholesale mortgage brokerage business.
The shutdown is expected to eliminate 14 jobs, reducing the bank's mortgage division staff by 40% and the bank's total work force by 6%.
The wholesale business buys home mortgages through brokers not affiliated with the $590 million-asset Community Resource Bank.
The company said that its mortgage division would focus on selling loans directly to consumers.
"We determined the returns and risks from the wholesale mortgage brokerage function did not justify that line of business," Samuel L. Erwin, Community Bankshares' chief executive officer, said in a press release.
"We regret the loss of jobs but believe these changes will provide for less risk and, in all probability, a less volatile earnings stream for the bank," Mr. Erwin said.
Community Bankshares has not released its fourth-quarter earnings report. In the third quarter its earnings dropped 27% from the same quarter a year earlier, to $872,000.
