Mortgage and Credit Crunch – It is Not Only the Home Owners Who Suffer

This is actually a guest post, but I decided to comment on it.

You see, we always think that it is the home owners who suffer from the mortgages due to credit crunch today. Well, I just learned that the employees in the business are also severely hit by the credit crunch.

I admit, I personally never take a look at mortgage business from bird’s eyes view. Now I see the mortgage business is stretched, if not crumbling, right now – causing thousands of people losing their jobs due to lay-offs and downsizings.

People and businesses ought to be more resilient and creative, these days!

Here is the full story on mortgage business in the UK…

Jobs to go at HBOS mortgage sector

With the mortgage drought in the UK continuing since the onset of the global credit crunch last year, it is not only consumers who are suffering. Many people that work within the mortgage industry have also suffered as a result of the turmoil in the mortgage sector, and recently HBOS has announced that there are to be job losses in its mortgage loan sector. The closure of a specialist mortgage branch by HBOS is to result in the loss of 325 jobs by the end of March next year.

The Mortgage Business, which is an arm of HBOS, will be closing to new custom later this month, and the bank will also close a mortgage processing centre. The job losses have been described as a blow by union officials, who have said that the number job losses is actually larger than the bank has cared to admit. In the first six months of the year HBOS announced that pre-tax profits fell by around 72%.

The bank said that it hoped the jobs could be cut through voluntary redundancies and turnover of staff. It added that the bank had to focus on streamlining the business. Union officials have said that the closure of the processing centre will affect jobs in Livinston, Chester, and Cardiff. One union official stated: "This is a further blow for jobs in the UK financial services sector which is being brought about by the credit crunch and the changing economic climate." 

Another union official said: "We are never happy about any reduction in roles in HBOS even if we understand the commercial logic for the changes."