Ocwen Financial Corp. in West Palm Beach, Fla., will lay off 120 employees as part of a plan to reduce costs.
A company spokesman confirmed the layoffs to ASR sister publication National Mortgage News. The layoffs were not confined to any particular location or business unit, he said.
The layoffs equate to roughly 4% of the company's U.S.-based staff. Ocwen employed 10,500 people as of Dec. 31, according to the company's 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, with roughly 2,900 employees in the U.S. About 6,900 of Ocwen's workers are located in India, and another 700 are based in the Philippines.
"After an extensive analysis of our cost structure, we made the difficult decision to reduce staffing levels to better align the company's resources with our current strategy and market opportunities," the company said in a statement provided to National Mortgage News.
"It is essential to bring our costs into proper alignment in order to preserve the necessary resources to drive future growth and restore the company to profitability."
Lower costs didn't help Ocwen avoid a loss during the first quarter. The company posted a net loss of $111.2 million for the quarter, despite an $80 million reduction in expenses, on unfavorable interest-rate-driven fair-value adjustments to mortgage servicing rights. A year earlier, the company recorded a $34.4 million net profit.
