Lakeland mortgage company lays off 58 as it shifts policies

Amerant Mortgage, a division of Miami’s Amerant Bank, is laying off employees as it shifts its originations strategy to focus on Florida.

The company revealed the 58 job cuts in a letter to state officials saying the layoffs would happen over a 14-day period starting June 23.

The letter was sent last week to meet federal Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification requirement and posted on the state’s WARN database late Friday.

The job cuts include 15 mortgage loan officers, five senior closers and funders and five loan officer assistants working at the company’s 226 N. Kentucky Ave. office.

An Amerant spokesperson says the office will remain open and about 20 employees will stay on.

The reason for the cuts is that the company is “transitioning from being a national originator to a Florida-focused model.”

“The reduction of staff was mainly in support of our out-of-footprint originations and those that were transitioned out of the company were all provided a severance,” the spokesperson says.

Jerry Plush, Amerant Bank’s chairman and CEO, spoke about the changes in a call with investors last week. On it, he said the decision had been made to, in part, cut costs.

The move, he said on the call, “should improve our operating efficiency by nearly 1% once all restructuring's complete.”

“While the mortgage business was built to create a new source of income in 2021 through the sale of conforming mortgage originations that could then be sold into the secondary market,” Plush told investors.

“This has required continued investment in hiring business development personnel and technology that makes perfect sense.”

According to Amerant’s latest earnings report, its total deposits as of March 31 were $8.15 billion, up 3.8% from $7.9 billion at the end of the previous quarter, Dec. 31.