First Magnus Another Casualty Of The Mortgage Meltdown

Is First Magnus Financial Corporation (FMFC), who is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona back in business? Last week their web-site posted a notice that they where discontinuing their mortgage operation. Today their site has been changed remaking the company into an online mortgage broker.

How many where laid off? From a Cathy Luebke article in The Business Journal of Phoenix FMFC has released 5,000 employees immediately. That info came from an E-mail sent to staff on Thursday. From the E-mail:

"Despite our efforts to continue normal operations, we have come to a point when we must substantially reduce our work force," the Austin email states. "What this means for most of our employees is that Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007, will be your last day of employment. Detailed information regarding payroll, benefits and other human resource related matters will be available as soon as possible."

Besides their wholesale operation, the list of retail offices is sizable.

From an AP article dated Friday FMFC has laid off 99% of their staff or 6,000 people. If it is 5,000 or 6,000 there are a lot of people put out of work with less than a day’s notice.

From the ESRI web-site:

“Starting out as a small retail mortgage bank in 1996 with only a handful of employees, FMFC has grown into the largest privately held mortgage bank in the United States and ranks in the top 20 of the largest mortgage bankers overall.”