IndyMac enters Hawaii market

The California bank has been hiring the laid-off employees of American Home

IndyMac Bank of Pasa-dena, Calif., is entering the Hawaii market by hiring former employees of the now-bankrupt American Home Mortgage Investment Corp.

IndyMac Bank is a subsidiary of IndyMac Bancorp Inc., which claims to be the seventh-largest savings and loan and the second-largest independent mortgage lender in the nation.

IndyMac Bank spokesman Grove Nichols confirmed that the firm has in the last two weeks been hiring the 40 employees formerly working for American Home Mortgage in Hawaii, as well as some other states.

"We are hiring a number of their people all around the country, mainly in the western U.S., but also in the East," said Nichols. "There's a good complement of people in Hawaii and we wanted to establish a presence over there."

Nichols said the hires around the country, to total several hundred people, will be announced next week.

It eventually hopes to take over ownership of the offices here through the bankruptcy process. American Home Mortgage had about 40 employees spread out in five offices in Hawaii.

Mark James, former Honolulu branch manager of American Home Mortgage, said the 40 or so employees who were packing up their belongs earlier this month, are now unpacking.

"We're on board with IndyMac Bank," said James. "It's a bank we feel very secure and happy with."

IndyMac Bank itself has also gone through some tough times in the mortgage market, which resulted in the layoff of about 400 employees nationwide in July in an effort to reap $30 million in annual cost savings.

Still, IndyMac executives says they still expect to remain solidly profitable during the downturn in business. Earlier this week, IndyMac announced it would once again originate prime, single-family jumbo loans after a temporary reduction.

The New York-based American Home Mortgage closed up operations on Aug. 3, dismissing nearly 7,000 employees, including the ones in Hawaii.