The San Diego firm said "substantially all" of its retail lending business, which is made up of 60 retail branches and five retail support locations, "will be effectively closed" as of Sept. 5, affecting 480 positions. Another 490 jobs will be lost at the wholesale operations, which will close five of its 10 divisions and cut staff at the other five. About 340 jobs will remain.
Also, staff at Accredited's headquarters will shrink to about 220 from 400 and the company's settlement and insurance-services business "will be substantially reduced." No details on the unit's cutbacks were provided.
Once the moves are completed, the firm's work force will be about 1,000, down from 2,600 as of June 30. Accredited's Canadian operations aren't affected by the restructuring.
"These difficult decisions were made out of necessity in light of the continued and widely publicized turbulence in the mortgage and financial markets, but with a heavy heart," said Chairman and Chief Executive James A. Konrath.
The restructuring announcement comes a day after Accredited said it would trade $1 billion in home loans to an investor in exchange for the right to buy those loans back later this year at a premium. The complex deal essentially protects the lender from loans losing value while offering the chance to turn a profit if the turbulent mortgage market improves.