A huge hat tip to Mathew Padilla over at the Mortgage Insider, who is breaking the story tonight that Alt-A lender Impac Mortgage Holdings laid off 20 percent of its workforce today. Back on July 19th, I’d speculated that the company’s decision to suspend its second quarter dividend was due to much larger problems than simply a new REO liquidation strategy — the company’s public cover story at the time. From Padilla’s blog entry:

Impac Mortgage Holdings of Irvine said today it cut 190 jobs, or roughly 20 percent of its staff. About 43 workers were let go in Orange County. The job losses, effectively immediately, were made in response to turmoil in the market for bonds backed by mortgages and general credit tightening, said Tania Jernigan, vice president of investor relations.

Fellow Alt-A outfit IndyMac Bank said last week that it would lay off 400 employees in response to “tough” conditions in the mortgage market.