Bad Credit Mortgage Arm of Wachovia Scrapped

Another bad credit home loan lender bites the dust.

Wachovia Corp., one of the biggest banks in the Southeast, has closed its subprime mortgage lending division, EquiBanc Mortgage, according to the South Florida Business Journal.

Florida was among the states where the company had operated in the past, and also one of the epicenters of the bad credit mortgage boom that has gripped the nation for much of the past six years.

The website of Georgia-based EquiBanc states Wachovia decided to close the business after “an intensive strategic review of its mortgage business.”

A meeting of top executives led to the conclusion that in today’s lending climate, the company’s approach to loan originations of nonconforming loans had to be revised.

A Wachovia spokeswoman confirmed the reason for the closure of the home mortgage company.

EquiBanc was Wachovia’s sole business dedicated to subprime, or bad credit home loan lending, in which people with poor or no credit are given risky loans at higher mortgage rates, the site said.

Wachovia has retail and commercial banking operations in 21 states.