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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:18 p.m., Thursday, September 4, 2008

GMAC Financial closes 5 Hawaii offices, lays off 42

Advertiser Staff

Lender GMAC Financial Services will be closing its five Hawai'i offices and laying off 42 employees as part of a nationwide downsizing effort by the company.

GMAC LLC and its Residential Capital LLC home loan unit yesterday announced that 5,000 employees will be laid off and all 200 GMAC Mortgage retail offices would be closed because of weak real estate markets. In Hawai'i, GMAC operated offices on Maui, Kona, Hilo, Kailua and two in Honolulu.

Jeannine Bruin, GMAC spokeswoman, said the Hawai'i offices will stop accepting new loan applications at 5 p.m. tomorrow. The offices will be closed on Sept. 12, she said.

Although the offices will be closed, Bruin said, GMAC and Residential Capital customers will continue to be serviced.

"We are still lending money. We're still making new loans. We're just not making them through our storefront presence or through mortgage brokers," she said from her office in Pennsylvania.

She said the 42 employees will receive severance pay and job-placement assistance.