Per Bloomberg, HSBC said it will eliminate 600 mortgage jobs and close one of its US-based mortgage operations centers as it adjusts to a long-term downturn in the mortgage market:

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank by market value, will eliminate 600 U.S. jobs and close a mortgage office as it retreats from the subprime home loans that have triggered a rise in defaults. The London-based bank will close the mortgage-services office in Carmel, Indiana, by June 30, 2008, spokesman Michael Trevino said in an interview today. HSBC employs 60,000 people in the U.S., Trevino said. “It’s about matching capacity with business volumes,” he said. “It’s about fat.”