Aurora Loan Services Closing?

I was just reading the message posted at Blown Mortgage about the possibility of Aurora Loan Services closing effective today.  As an approved broker, this is somewhat surprising to me as I have not been notified, nor heard of any substantiated rumors as such, so if you have any additional information, please add to the comment section here or email me.

At Implode-O-Meter, apparently there was an email submitted stating:

Dear brokers and loan officers,

It is with great regret to announce that Aurora Loan Services decided to close its doors effective immediately.  The reasons behind this decision is more than evident considering the market situation.

Any files that have been submitted and locked with Aurora will be finalized.  For those who want to submit a file, you will have until end of business day tomorrow to submit and lock the file for no more than 30 days.

Again, neither Morgan at Blown Mortgage nor I have substantiated any of this rumor and want to find out more, so please let us know if you have any additional information.

(Update:  News articles hitting airwaves now about Lehman Brothers and Aurora Loan Services below)

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/17/news/companies/lehman.ap/index.htm?section=money_latest

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-lehman-mortgages-layoffs.html?ex=1358312400&en=c09362ed691daffa&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

The NY Times article states:

Lehman, which had built one of Wall Street's biggest mortgage businesses, said it will suspend wholesale and correspondent lending at its Aurora Loan Services unit. Aurora will continue to make home loans directly and service mortgages.

So, apparently Aurora Loan Services will only be shutting down its wholesale side, joining other lenders who have done the same thing.  Yeah, that should help them make money.