With the recession intensifying and mortgage lenders hurting badly, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America is considering slashing its workforce by as much as 25 percent within the next month or two, according to three sources familiar with the group's financial picture. The expected layoffs, which would amount to the third round of job cuts at the MBAA over the past year, are likely to reduce the overall staff to below 100 people, sources say.

The planned cuts are spurred partly by the mortgage industry's financial woes, which have translated into the MBAA losing such key members as Countrywide and Wachovia due to mergers and bankruptcies. Further, the association is suffering from its own real estate headaches in Washington: the trade group is having a tough time finding tenants for the 12-story building at 1331 L Street that it bought about a year ago, and difficulty leasing space it used to occupy at 1919 Pennsylvania Ave.

Cheryl Crispen, an MBAA spokesperson, said that the group is going through a "reengineering process" that could last another six or eight weeks to determine what is the "right size to meet our members' needs." Crispen stressed that "nothing has been decided or determined yet," and called the 25 percent estimate "speculative."

Asked about the group's real estate problems, Crispen said the MBAA recently signed two leases and two letters of intent with tenants for its L Street building. When completed, those agreements will bring the building's occupancy level to about two-thirds, she said. Further, she said that the MBAA has made progress in finding tenants for its previous office space on Pennsylvania Ave.

                                                                                                              -- Peter H. Stone