The 4^th largest bank in the nation, Wachovia Corp, has announced that starting on July 25th, they will not provide any more mortgages through brokers. They are just one in the line of many lenders that are following this trend; Rival Bank of America is just one of the others that previously made this move. Others that have completely stopped using brokers and are instead using their own loan officers are the Bank of America and National City Corp.

To date, the amount of jobs that will be eliminated with Wachovia has not been discussed, but on Tuesday it is expected that more details will be disclosed, as soon as the bank releases their 2^nd quarter figures.

Don Vecchiarello, a spokesperson for Wachovia, remarked on the change, saying that they had, "recognized some opportunities to re-position our business", in light of the troubles befalling the market today. He also said that the move was done as "We believe it is important to focus on serving the needs of customers who have relationships with the bank, and who are located in geographies where Wachovia franchises are located,".

Perhaps further sparking this change, was the all time low hit by the company shares. At the start of July, Wachovia had hired Robert Steel as their new CEO. Steel was a previous Treasury Undersecretary and executive with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. After a week of occupying the job, Wachovia´s shares dropped to a 17 year low. Prior to Steel, the job had been held by Ken Thompson, who was let go after he made several moves that were viewed as incorrect or risky. One such move was his decision in 2006 to buy another mortgage lender, Golden West Financial Corp, at $25 billion. However, Golden West came with almost $120 billion in crumbling Pick-A-Payment loans, which is an option that let borrowers skip the occasional payment. After buying Golden, Wachovia´s shares dropped 5%.