Home loan firm to close Raleigh office and lay off 242

A Florida company that acquired a loan serving company with an office in Raleigh plans to close the facility and eliminate 242 jobs.

Ocwen Financial Services filed a notice with the state today under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — something required by federal law any time a company is planning to shut down a facility or lay off a large number of workers..

The notice states that Ocwen, which completed its $1.3 billion acquisition of HomEq Servicing today, will permanently close the HomEq office at 701 Corporate Center Drive by October 31.

HomEq services troubled loans for lenders and investors, taking calls from struggling homeowners and working with borrowers to modify their loans or lower interest rates on their mortgages.

HomEq had roughly 1,200 employees as of June when the acquisition was announced. The majority of them are located at the company's main offices in North Highlands, a suburb of Sacramento, Calif.

Ocwen purchased HomEq from London-based Barclays Bank. It was the fourth time HomEq had been sold in the past decade.

Ocwen said the work now done at the Raleigh office will be transferred to other existing Ocwen facilities.

West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Ocwen is one of the country's largest subprime loan servicing companies. It has offices in California, Washington D.C., Florida and Georgia as well as operations in India and Uruguay.

“We regret the loss of HomEq jobs and are grateful to those employees for their service and commitment to that firm, but we are heartened that the addition of HomEq customers to the Ocwen platform will enable us to provide real, home-saving solutions to more distressed homeowners and step up our role in efforts to solve the mortgage crisis,” said Ocwen President Ronald Faris in a statement.