The owner of a St. Petersburg business has announced 380 employees are to be laid off.
Bill Edwards, owner of Mortgage Investors Corp., called the layoffs the result of a ‘perfect storm’ of blows to the business
Mortgage Investors Corp. is located on Central Avenue, and the layoffs include people from several departments including loan processing. Edwards cited a recent spike in interest rates and the current climate in the mortgage-backed securities market as reasons for the layoffs.
“This has been hard,” Edwards said, “some of these people have been working here for more than 17 years.”
Edwards tells Bay News 9 the employees have been given two months of severance pay, and will continue to have health benefits throughout that period.
In June, the Federal Trade Commission levied a civil penalty of $7.5 million on the company for calling more than 5 million telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call list. The FTC says the telemarketers were calling to pitch home loan refinancing services to military veterans.