Icon Residential, a lender in Irvine, Calif., recently pulled the plug on its plans to enter the correspondent lending channel, laying off roughly 120 full-time employees at the unit and at a related division.
Toni Farrow, chief administrative officer for Icon, said the correspondent effort was shuttered even before it got off the ground.
Icon began laying the groundwork to enter the correspondent channel late last year and began staffing up.
Farrow did not give a reason for the shutdown, but pointed to Bank of America Corp.'s decision to sell its correspondent unit as a sign of the times. "It appears to be a trend," she said.
The layoffs occurred about two weeks ago.
Farrow noted that although 120 workers were let go, Icon is hiring on the West Coast and has 30 open positions.
