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An Illinois company that collects mortgage payments on behalf of lenders and investors has informed the state that it plans to lay off more than 200 workers next year.
As a loan subservicer, Lake Zurich, Illinois-based Dovenmuehle Mortgage collects monthly mortgage payments from homeowners in all 50 states on behalf of commercial banks, credit unions, independent mortgage lenders, investors and state housing finance agencies.
Dovenmuehle also helps lenders and investors retain borrowers by offering homeowners opportunities to refinance, sponsoring 10 mortgage loan originators, according to records maintained by the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System.
In a Dec. 14 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) act notice filed with the Illinois Department of Commerce, Dovenmuehle said it will cut 212 positions at its Lake Zurich headquarters beginning in February.
The list of positions being eliminated includes six supervisors, four assistant managers, four project managers, and dozens of employees in operations, including 34 customer service representatives (six of whom are bilingual), 14 loss mitigation specialists, 10 clerical support workers and nine client advocates.
Dovenmuehle had not responded to requests for comment from Inman by publication time. According to the WARN Act notice, the layoffs are “a partial reduction” in the company’s workforce at the site, and it intends to continue operations there. Dovenmuehle lists eight current openings on a website powered by ADP.
Many mortgage lenders and companies that provide support to lenders, including loan servicing giant Mr. Cooper, were forced to downsize last year as rising mortgage rates curtailed business.
Last month Dovenmuehle announced it had added a secure messaging feature to its mortgage subservicing platform employing artificial intelligence to automatically route requests directly to the appropriate department.
Mr. Cooper has said it’s made a “massive investment” in artificial intelligence and is hoping to trim at least $50 million in annual expenses from its call centers by using AI to handle customer calls.
Dovenmuehle also added a loss draft notification feature that provides borrowers with pending loss draft claims with in-app notifications for each claim filed, basic information on their claim, and updates on individual disbursements for each claim. The new feature makes it easy for lenders to track individual borrower claims and disbursements, the company said.
In addition to its Lake Zurich, Illinois, headquarters, Dovenmuehle’s website lists offices in Elgin, Illinois, and San Francisco. The company said in March that it had closed its office in North Aurora, Illinois.
Founded in 1844, Dovenmuehle subservices mortgages that banks and credit unions hold in their portfolios, as well as loans that are packaged into mortgage-backed securities backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Banks.
Dovenmuehle announced in September that it had signed Flanagan State Bank as a subservicing client, and the company made a number of executive hires this year, including IT veteran Robert Howerton, hired as chief information officer; former Hinsdale Bank executive Patricia McCarthy as vice president of insurance administration; former Wintrust Mortgage executive Ron Malik as senior vice president of default servicing; former Associated Bank sales team leader Anna Krogh as vice president of business development; and cybersecurity expert Georgeo Pulikkathara as chief information security officer.
In March, Dovenmuehle said Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings has affirmed the company’s “Above Average” rating as a residential mortgage loan primary servicer with a stable outlook, a rating the company has held “for the past 12 years without interruption.”
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