PASADENA, Calif. — Wescom is out of the wholesale mortgagelending business.

An official notice the $2.8 billion credit union sent to itsbrokers is posted on The Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter(http://ml-implode.com/), a year-old Web site that attracts 100,000visitors daily, and has been sourced by the Wall Street Journal,MSNBC, and Bloomberg publications.

The notice, dated Dec. 12, states, “After careful consideration,Wescom has elected to exit the wholesale lending business forresidential real estate loans, effective immediately.”

Wescom posted a $6.9 million annualized net loss and a $35.6million annualized provision for loan losses as of Sept. 30, perNCUA reports. Both figures are quite different from Wescom's Sept.30 '06 numbers, when the credit union recorded an $18.5 million netprofit, and only provisioned $16.2 million for loan losses.

Credit Union Times received a tip from former Wescomemployee, who said she was laid off last month, along with morethan 100 others. The employee, who asked to remain anonymous, saidemployees were told the layoffs were a result of financialperformance concerns. Wescom's entire wholesale lending departmentwas laid off, she said, as well as employees in marketing,community relations, and member service.

Requests for an interview or a statement from Wescom weredenied.