Good Bye Bank of America, Wachovia and Countrywide

We all watch the news and it seems like everyday we see more evidence of the collapse of Lenders and their lending divisions.  I have a dear friend who was employed by World Savings.  She relocated from California to Charlotte, NC just to take an Underwriting position with Wachovia (By the way, Wachovia and World Savings Merged).  About 1 month ago, she was laid off.  Well Goodbye to Bank of America’s wholesale lending division.  They will no longer be offering mortgage products through brokers to consumers nationwide.  BOA will layoff 700 people as a resultBank of America is the nation’s 2nd largest Bank.  Bank of America will however continue to offer mortgage products direct to consumer through their banking centers nationwide.  Now, Bank of America closes their wholesale lending division. Countrywide has been a juggernaut in the lending world for many years.  Lately, they’ve made cuts and changed guidelines the same as every other lender.  Countrywide’s shares dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of 67% this year.  I’m really not big on betting but, I’m betting… that can’t be good.  Apparently they don’t think so either.  I guess that may be why they are currently making preparation to layoff 12,000 employees. Lenders have been squeezed as a credit-crunch and defaults in subprime loans have caused investors to become hesitant about taking risks.