Lehman to fire another 850 workers in mortgages

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said on Thursday it will fire another 850 workers, or about 3 percent of its work force, as it scales back its mortgage lending efforts globally.

Lehman said it will trim its operations in the United States and United Kingdom and close its South Korean mortgage business.

The moves will result in costs of $20 million after taxes, Lehman said.

The cuts come two weeks after the investment bank said it would fire 1,200 workers as it shuttered its U.S. subprime mortgage lender.

Lehman, one of the largest underwriters and traders of mortgage debt on Wall Street, was one of the first investment banks to make home loans itself and package them into bonds. The investment bank planned to export that business globally.

But that business has proven more difficult as big credit losses in U.S. subprime mortgages have made investors leery of mortgages packaged into bonds.