Just three years after getting into the mortgage origination business, Discover Financial Services plans to shutter its home lending operations.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Discover, which began offering home loans after it acquired Tree.com in 2012, will dissolve the service in order to shift focus to consumer banking services.

Discover says the move to consumer banking offers “greater opportunities for growth.”

The company has already stopped accepting applications at its Irvine, CA, location, but will continue processing and funding loans already underway, the L.A. Times reports.

Discover Home Loans Inc. will also wind down business at its Louisville, KY, offices later this summer. AmeriSave Mortgage Corp. is expected to finish processing applications from that unit, establishing its own office in the city.

The mortgage origination closure will result in the loss of about 460 jobs. Discover says it will offer severance packaged to the affected employees.

Discover Financial closes mortgage unit, lays off hundreds in Irvine [The Los Angeles Times]

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