The bank made cuts to invest in other areas.
USAA Bank is the financial services arm of the insurance giant.
Steven Santana | MySA
USAA Federal Savings Bank is feeling the effects once again of the continued dip in the housing market as it has cut more jobs in its effort to focus in other areas. The banking arm of San Antonio-based insurance giant, USAA laid off 130 employees in its mortgage department as homebuying continues to slow from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
USAA Bank is offering a paid transition and career workshops to the employees that were cut. Others can apply for open positions within the bank if they’re eligible. Bradley Russell, a spokesperson for USAA Bank, told the Express-News that the cuts were made to invest “more heavily in growth areas and scaling back or stopping work in others.”
Russell told MySA that the cuts amount to 1.6% of the bank’s workforce.
Express-News reports that mortgage applications dropped 41% year-over-year for the week that ended on Friday, January 27, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association survey. Applications to refinance were down 80% from a year earlier.
The bank laid off more than 90 employees in March 2022. At the time USAA Bank projected a 34% drop to 25,000 real estate loans despite having staff in place to facilitate an anticipated 38,000 loans.
USAA Bank also cut an undisclosed amount of jobs in human resources, client advising, information technology, and business continuation in August 2022. These cuts were made to respond to “shifts in the marketplace.”