Option One, a unit of H&R Block, announced in May that it would cut 615 jobs in an effort to reduce costs to compensate for a decline in loan demand and lower prices in the secondary market, where its mortgages are sold. Today, however, Option One Mortgage Corp., the biggest originator of home loans to Rhode Island borrowers with credit problems, said it will close its loan-processing office in East Providence and lay off 63 employees by Dec. 1 as part of a company-wide cost-cutting plan.

H&R Block worked very hard to dump (read that as “sell”) their subprime lending unit before the house of cards fell and became a huge crisis in the United States. Their partner in high interest short term income tax loans, HSBC, was taking billions of dollars in write-offs for bad loans. Anyone who denies that these lenders did not know of a pending implosion should think again.