Banking and mortgage crisis hits Depew

DEPEW, N.Y. (WIVB) - The devastating news came late Tuesday. More than 200 people at the HSBC Mortgage Center in Depew will be losing their jobs.

The banking and mortgage crisis has hit western New York.

225 workers at HSBC were told they have 60 days left.

Company officials say they are closing part of the mortgage business.

It's another tough pill to swallow. 20% of the workforce was just handed pink slips. Over 1100 people work at HSBC Mortgage Corporation in Depew. The layoffs are part of the company's decision to close it's wholesale and third party correspondent mortgage business.

A company spokesperson says that the Mortgage group is concentrating on directly lending to consumers, instead of going through brokers.

HSBC released a statement Tuesday afternoon:

"Mortgage corporation will continue to originate mortgages through HSBC's 460 bank branches...going forward, mortgage corp will focus on the retail sales channel, where mortgages are originated directly with consumers."

Meanwhile, workers at Citigroup are bracing themselves for bad news. The company expects to cut more than 50,000 jobs.

A company spokesperson tells News 4 that these are across the board cuts as Citigroup does business in more than 100 countries. They do not know where or when those cuts will be or if they affect the more than 800 employees in Amherst.

It's one of the biggest cuts to a business in United States history, more than 20% of its entire workforce.

As for HSBC, a company spokesperson tells me that those 225 employees who will be out of work can apply for jobs in other areas of HSBC.