Mr. Cooper Shutters Wholesale Business

Mr. Cooper is leaving the wholesale mortgage business.

The Dallas-based lending giant said Wednesday it “made the decision to cease its wholesale lending operations, a segment of the business we entered as part of the Pacific Union Financial, LLC acquisition.”

The company said the challenges presented by the pandemic were “not the driving force” in the decision and that the wholesale business accounted for less than 5 percent of its total originations volume. The change will lead to some job cuts, the company said.

“As the market has evolved, we’ve increased our focus on our current customers and continue to prioritize investments in their experience to create customers for life,” the company said in a statement. “Additionally, we will continue to make investments in growing our Correspondent channel.”

Wholesale lending is a subset of the mortgage market in which loans come from a bank or other entity that do not deal directly with borrowers. Instead, the loans are funneled through brokers or other banks.

Mr. Cooper said the decision is not material, though it will impact an unspecified number of jobs at the company.

“We were able to find new roles within the company for the majority of our wholesale team members, shifting them mainly to our direct-to-consumer lending team,” the company said. “We regret that this has impacted a small number of team members especially during this uncertain time. We are working with those individuals to find new opportunities at other organizations, in addition to offering career outplacement services and severance packages.”