Mortgage lender Ditech Financial announced on Thursday that it is closing its Rapid City, South Dakota-based call center at the end of 2019, leaving more than 450 of its employees without jobs.
According to reporting by the Rapid City Journal, the company confirmed it will close its operations in the city when its lease on the property expires in November 2019.
"This outcome has been part of a thorough evaluation process in selecting the locations that will best accommodate our long-term business requirements and the needs of our customers," the lender explained in a statement.
Rapid City’s mayor, Steve Allender, told the Journal via email that the impending closure was not unexpected.
“But it is still bad news for the employees of the company and bad news for Rapid City,” he told the paper.
The company’s announcement comes at a time when other lenders are cutting back on staff. Earlier this year, Pacific Union Financial unexpectedly closed the doors to its mortgage fulfillment call center in El Paso, Texas, and community bank and mortgage lender HomeStreet is closing several offices and laying off more than 100 staffers due to a lack of demand for its mortgage products.
