Ditech to shutter Costa Mesa offices and layoff hundreds

The Costa Mesa offices of Ditech, the online mortgage lender, will close in the next two months and 269 employees will be laid off, the parent company GMAC announced last week. Ditech operations will be moved to the company’s Fort Washington, Pa. mortgage facility.

GMAC, which is controlled by the U.S. government, reported an annual loss Thursday of $10.3 billion for 2009. The company makes auto and home loans. Mortgage defaults have roiled its home lending arm Residential Capital LLC, which housed the Ditech employees in Costa Mesa.

“The move is expected to enable improved operational efficiencies,� the company said in a statement. Ditech will continue to lend and serve its customers, without interruption.

The U.S. government infused GMAC with cash to aid domestic automakers. It received $3.79 billion from the Treasury Department on Dec. 30 and about $13.5 billion in two previous bailouts.

Ditech was founded in 1995 by Paul Reddam, a former philosophy professor. He sold the company to GMAC in 1999 and resigned in 2000 amid a U.S. probe into conduct of the company’s employees.