Interfirst laying off 77 people in North Carolina office

Interfirst Mortgage, which recently raised $175 million, is planning to permanently layoff 77 people in its Charlotte, North Carolina office, including 49 retail loan officers and 10 national account executives.

While the Rosemont, Illinois-based company has not responded to a request for comment, one LinkedIn post made at least a week ago from a now-former employee in the main office said Interfirst laid off hundreds of workers at that location. Several former employees from that office posted about their own layoffs in that office as well.

For 2022, industry economists expect overcapacity to return as the forecast increase in purchase volume will not be enough to offset the potential decline in refinancings. That is expected to lead to a large number of staff reductions across the mortgage business.

The Charlotte office is licensed to conduct business in 23 states and the District of Columbia. It is one of seven branch offices licensed to Chicago Mortgage Solutions, according to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System & Registry; Interfirst is a ”doing business as” name for the company.

Besides the sales staffers set to lose their jobs starting on or around Jan. 21, 2022, seven retail sales managers, seven transaction coordinators, two wholesale development trainers, a regional manager and a regional sales director wholesale lending are being dismissed. The information comes from a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter dated Nov. 16 sent to the North Carolina Division of Workforce Solutions. The Division's website indicated that the layoffs were not a result of the office closing.

The current version of Interfirst was created in 2011 when NetMore America combined its operations into InterBank Mortgage. The company purchased the Interfirst brand name from Citigroup in 2014; Citi had come into possession of the brand when it acquired the parent of the original InterFirst, ABN Amro Mortgage, in 2007.

Back in July 2017, Interfirst suspended operations for nearly three years, citing market oversaturation and overvaluation on pricing for both loans and servicing rights in the secondary market.

The company resumed lending again in June 2020, looking to take advantage of the low interest rate environment resulting from the pandemic. In October, Interfirst received a $175 million investment from a group led by StoicLane and included Oaktree Capital Management and MFA Financial.

Around the same time, Interfirst hired Tony Santangelo as vice president, regional wholesale production for the East Coast to be based in North Carolina.